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1 i r 9 lL "

o 09128 48300 9

1 A ■■ A

Months

Guide to Electronic Bulletin Boards and The Internet

Online Publication o

Btck Heming (left) and Jim Harrer with the Mustang
Software crew at their new headquarters facility in
Bakersfield California .

What Can You Do with the Open

Just about anything you want. That’s
because The Major BBS is a completely
open-ended platform for creating your own
unique online service.

You can choose from a huge selection of
off-the-shelf software — just a small fraction

of which is represented here — offered by
over 100 third-party developers.

Most of these add-ons integrate into your
BBS as DLLs (Dynamic Link Libraries). No
shelling to DOS is required. And because
these DLLs are written in C and Assembly,

they provide far greater performance and
flexibility than script languages or dBase
derivatives.

You can run all this from a single com¬
puter and support up to 256 simultaneous
users via modems, serial connections, direct

Multimedia Document Retrieval Systems -

MagiComm, Inc.

Parallax Development Corporation

Group Decisionware and Electronic Democracy

Consensus Systems, Inc.

MagiComm, Inc.

MajorSoft Inc.

Novell LAN Access -

Galacticomm, Inc.

Language Add-on Options -

(Spanish, German, French, Italian, Greek,
Chinese, Japanese, Russian, fUPscrip, etc.)

Astrocom Multimedia
BSI Technologies
Galacticomm, Inc.

Infima

Medcom Information Systems
Online Store
Studio 5 Liguria SRL
Techtrade

TeleGrafix Communications Inc.

Online Shopping/Order Entry/Auctions -

BSI Technologies
DataSafe Publications
Durand Communications Network
Excalibur! Software
Galacticomm, Inc.

Infinetwork

Developer’s Toolkit and C Source Code

Galacticomm, Inc.

Integrated Fax Capabilities -

Galacticomm, Inc.

MagiComm, Inc.

The Business BBS

Super CD-ROM Management

Farwest BBS

Mountain Rose Multi Media

“Dial-Out” with Scripts

Galacticomm, Inc.
Logicom, Inc.

Architecture of The Major BBS'?

— Programmable xBase Capability

Integrated Solutions, Inc.

The Business BBS

Direct X.25 Connectivity

Galacticomm, Inc.

Internet Mail and Newsgroups

Galacticomm, Inc.

Teleconference Links and Worldwide Chat

ProStar Computer Corporation
Public Data Network
Tessier Technologies, Inc.

Outstanding Multi-Player Games

ComputeI

High Velocity Software, Inc.

Jabberwocky
Logicom, Inc.

MajorSoft Inc.

M.B. Murdock & Associates
Tessier Technologies, Inc.

WilderLand Software

Credit Card Verification

DataSafe Publications

— Photograph/Image Databases

Durand Communications Network
The Business BBS

Mail Networks of All Kinds
(FIDO, RIME, QWK, MajorNet, etc.)

Crystal Vision, Inc.

DigiTet Inc.

MLP Associates
ProStar Computer Corporation
Public Data Network
Tessier Technologies, Inc.

X.25 circuits, and Novell LAN channels. No
other BBS platform gives you this power.

Need “doors” capability too? You can
hook up additional machines and instantly
use the programs written for multi-node
BBSes as well.

To quote Newsbytes, “The Major BBS is
one of the most powerful and expandable
boards available, yet it is extremely easy to
install and run.”

For more information, see your local
dealer, or give us a call at 1-800-328-1128

(outside U.S. and Canada call 305-583-5990).
And team up with BBS developers that link
you into everything else.

0GALACTICOMM

- Advanced Account Management

East Side Computing
High Velocity Software, Inc.
Parallax Development Corporation
ProStar Computer Corporation
Sirius Software
Tessier Technologies, Inc.

Fable of Contents

Editor's Notes 8

NetLock - The Internet Busy Signal in the Crystal Cathedral

Mustang Software releases new
Wildcat! 4.0

Mars scape as portrayed by
CompuServe CD

Dvorak Online 140

Internet Junkies

In My Humble Opinon - Letters to the Editor 10

Telebits

Wildcat! BBS Version 4.0.24

AOL and National Parenting Center Join Forces.28

ZiffNet Programmers’s Cookbook.28

Enhanced First Class Client for Newton Message Pad.30

ITU V.34 Modem Standard for 28.8 kbps Approved.34

Left Handed Keyboard.34

CompuServe Gateway for Microsoft Mail.34

Hayes to Enter Video Conferencing Market.34

The Strange Tale of DLX Software.34

The Business Week Guide to Global Investments

Using Electronic Tools.40

Internetica

Cheap Internet Mail from Windows.57

Global Network Navigator and the Twelve Best Destinations on

the Internet.61

Pipeline to the Internet and Hooked.62

IRC - 5,000 Channels of Global Chat.64

Tracking the Wild Zine - Micro Publishing on the Internet.68

Access To Government 74

Mapping Your Area

Boardwatch Magazine (Issn: 1054-2760) is published monthly at an annual subscription rate of $36. ($99 Overseas) by
Boardwatch Magazine, 8500 W. Bowles Ave., Suite 210, Littleton, CO. 80123. Second Class postage paid at Littleton,
CO and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Boardwatch Magazine, 8500 West
Bowles Ave. Suite 210, Littleton, CO 80123 Printed in USA.

Jack Rickard

The Big Boards

Delphi.92

America Online.96

GEnie.104

Prodigy.100

CompuServed.102

Macintosh BBS News

Public Address Again.80

Aeolus Update.82

Assistant Editor

Brian Gallagher

Contributing Writers

John C. Dvorak
Jim Warren
Jim Thompson
Lance Rose
Bill Gram-Reefer
Walt Howe
Harley Hahn
Ric Manning
Charles Moore
Phyllis Phlegar
Dave Tennant
Lenny Bailes
Alan Bryant

Education Link

The RAIN Model

Legally Online

Shootout: Software Ratings and the Struggle for

Industry Dominance.88

Teleconfusion 106

Hard Head

Art Director/Cover Design

Charlie Moore

Graphic Design and Production

Jeff Rouyer
Marla Asheim

Subscriptions/Circulation

Rob King
Ryan Boggess

Technical Operations

Doug Seacat
Darien Waldhoff

Newsstand Circulation

Direct Dial

107

Martin L. Shafkowitz

Advertising Sales

Women Who Sysop Too Much and the Callers They Love.107

High Tech Jobs Online - Career Connections BBS.111

Bipolar Board - Club Infinity.112

Husband and Wife BBS Team - DLS BBS.114

FCC World BBS.115

List Directory

This Month: 252 Female Sysop BBSs.108

UUCP Host List.116

BBS Software Vendors List.120

List of List Keepers.118

The Big List.121

Boardwatch National List.130

Boardwatch Advertisers.136

Roger Mertes
Charlie Moore

Editorial Offices

8500 W. Bowles Ave., Suite 210
Littleton, CO 80123
(303)973-6038 Editorial
303 973-3731 Fax
303 973-4222 BBS
(800)933-6038 Subscriptions

Electronic Mail

Internet:

jack.rickard @ boardwatch.com
subscriptions@boardwatch.com

FidoNet: 1:104/555

■wi curs. 1 :

x* jUUc'.u::

mimP

The high reliability - of TBBS means its power
won’t turn on you. No babysitting required.

TBBS’ unprecedented flexibility lets your BBS
talk to vour callers in their language.

The test was conducted in the eSoft Testing Lab.
Each PC represents one BBS user.

A 64-linc TBBS and Internet Protocol Adapter
(IPAD). Minimum hardware - maximum power.

When your BBS succeeds, you’ll need die power
to back it up - and you won’t want to buy a
room Hill of computers to get it. For years, TBBS
has stood alone at die top of die power curve in
BBS software. It still does. To prove it, we put all types of BBS software in a room and tested them. As die graph on die left
shows, die closest competitor can t deliver half the speed and power of TBBS 2.3. To complement its speed and power,
TBBS delivers unprecedented flexibility and
smootii expandability - on die minimum
hardware possible. So scaling up as your
system grows won’t stress either your

budget or your sanity. And TBBS is backed by eSoft - the company widi the most computer communications knowledge
and expertise in die industry. You can buy 64 user TBBS 2.3 for $1,995 (32 user for $1,495,16 user for $895, and 4 user

TBBS.

for $295). When you’re ready for the only BBS
product that can truly deliver reliable online
xBASE databasing, TCP/IP Internet access,

LAN access and

high speed modem support in an integrated system, then you’re ready to step up to

Soft

TBBS. Call (303) 699-6565 for more information and access to a demonstration system.

1 5200 E. Girard Ave.
Suite 3000
Aurora, CO 80014

Editor’s Notes

NETLOCK - THE INTERNET
BUSY SIGNAL IN THE
CRYSTAL CATHEDRAL

W e first began talking about a thing
called “The Internet” in 1989
about six months after domain name
service came into being. In January
1992, our cover story introduced
“Connecting BBSs to the Internet” and
we’ve been following this theme of the
BBS/Internet connection as chief arm
and flag waver for several years now.
It’s rather become a pet project to get
everyone on the planet on the Internet
and some say I’ve obsessed on it just a
wee bit. I’ve even written a bit of code
where necessary along the way between
magazine issues to get parts of it to
happen.

So I would rather take a coast-to-coast
flight in my electric clothes dryer than
suffer anyone to question whether or
not the big “I” is the be all and end all
of online existence. It is with some hesi¬
tancy that I might mention the
following:

It may be over.

With all of the interest in the Internet
by an ever widening online populace,
and tremendous energy in a whole new
frontier of software development to
bring Windows and DOS and so forth
into IP connectivity, it just doesn’t seem
to be appropriate that it be so. But
there is a very real possibility that the
teeny minor little bit of confusion on
the part of those trying to build the
information superhypeway, about the
difference between connectivity and
capacity, may reach a critical point in
the months ahead. The Internet is just
about stalled out - some would say non-
operational - even now.

We have a couple of connections we play
with. We use NETCOM for a UUCP
connection and a 28.8 kbps dedicated
SLIP and Rocky Mountain Net for a 56
KB leased line. We don’t really do much
with any of it but play around with it.
But it’s Thursday afternoon and I
entered an ftp request on one of the
machines nine minutes ago. It’s still
looking up their IP address from our
hosts domain name server.

NETCOM has been so busy adding
accounts that their customer service no
longer actually exists in reachable form.
If you can get through, they are a great
bunch of guys, just completely buried.
They have to have sunlight mailed from
home so they can see what it looks like.
Their terminal server can’t talk to the

Hayes Optima 288 modem on their end
and they have to reset it by typing AT if
the connection goes away for any
reason. We were down four days last
month waiting for them to type “AT.”
Our Rocky Mountain Network host
changed the name of their name server
machines about 5 weeks ago and we
have not been reachable through the
boardwatch.littleton.co.us address SINCE
then. As it turns out, this is because the
authoritive domain name servers for
the Western United States still have the
old name servers at Rocky Mountain
Net (which don’t exist under those
names anymore) listed in their data¬
base. How does this database get
updated in this highly automated global
network? Somebody has to go over and
enter the file entry at the keyboard by
hand. And WestNet is sure that is really
Colorado Supernet’s job. And Colorado
Supernet is really sure it is WestNet’s
responsibility. Rocky Mountain Net is
stuck in the middle. We’re not even
really in the discussion and I’m sure
everyone’s a little bit uncomfortable
that we know as much about it as we
do, which isn’t much.

Bulletin boards are currently hopping
from one UUCP provider to another.
They all work for awhile, then word
gets out, everybody jumps on the one
that works, and it doesn’t work
anymore. This is complicated by a reli¬
gious dogma within the UNIX commu¬
nity that their machines have endless
capacity. One of them can be down on
the floor with smoke pouring out both
ends whimpering for its life, this does
nothing to dissuade them from the illu-
■ sion. If it doesn’t work, it must be some¬
thing on your end or something you’re
doing wrong. The machine is invincible
and if it appears otherwise, you must
not be viewing it correctly.

Despite the growing inability to service
existing accounts, we’re also starting to
see totally nonsensical policies creeping
into the commercial service providers
world that actually PREVENTS connec¬
tivity. There are rumors that some of
these services will no longer accept
outbound USENET messages unless
you are getting your full USENET feed
FROM them inbound as well. This is in
reaction to the perfectly lucid strategy
of bringing in the bulk of USENET via
satellite and just transporting your e-
mail and relatively tiny amount of
USENET replies by telephone. Appar¬
ently this drops the connect time to
some of these services and they WANT
you tying up their phone lines to the
point they become inoperable. It’s
crazy.

Behind all the smoke and mirrors of the
Internet, is an aging wizard behind the
curtain cranking the wheels furiously.
Internet’s dirty little secret is that
almost all functions to add or delete
users, maintain accounts of any sort,
and even the supposedly automated
domain name service is done manually.
It reminds me of a very high tech exper¬
iment in movie delivery by telephone
conducted by U.S. West last year. You
could simply enter a movie selection on
a little keypad and the selected movie
would appear on your TV a few minutes
later - magically - after a technician
read the entry off a screen and walked
over and loaded a VHS videotape into
the wall of VHS players they erected.
What a miracle.

While the thin gossamer web of lines
linking all this together can theoreti¬
cally handle the traffic, the machines
that do the domain name look ups and
handle the mail that they connect are
very nearly swamped. The support func¬
tions necessary to make this work at all
are essentially no longer functional.
And you can’t get any of them to do
anything with a prayer of it actually
being done correctly short of six tele¬
phone calls and three attempts on their
part.

Then there are the problems of success
on-site. If you are going to have an ftp
or telnet site, or an IRC server, or
world-wide-web, it wouldn’t make much
sense to spend a lot of time and money
setting it up and then not have anyone
use it. Books and magazines publish
reviews of “neat things you can do on
the net” and over the weekend, you
suddenly can’t do them anymore. You
can’t get in - at all.

So in some cases they change the site
name. We used ARCHIE to locate a
single common file on the Internet, This
is the magical distributed database of
ftp sites and their holdings that auto¬
matically updates itself constantly and
can find any file, any time, anywhere.
The first FIVE sites ARCHIE listed that
we tried to ftp to in order to get the file
- sported advisory screens that the ftp
site had been moved to another
machine and gave the new ftp address.

This while only a tiny percentage of the
17 million EXISTING BBS callers have
any connectivity at all - and they ALL
want it pretty badly. It may SOUND
like you are the last person on earth
without access to the Internet, but
you’re not. And while no one is talking
about it, the congestion on the net
during certain times of the day has
reached the point we don’t have a
network - we have netlock.

8 Boardwatch - August 1994

I have this recurring nightmare
picturing trillions of packets all hanging
dead in mid-air waiting for one, just one
packet, to move so they can all continue
on to their destinations. And it all
hinges on whether or not some 122
pound hunchbacked weenie in Coral
Gables Florida can correctly claw a
domain name into the keyboard of a 15
year old Apollo box in his basement.
Peering out of his one good eye through
a haze of Pall Mall smoke, if he miskeys
a character, the whole thing evaporates
and I’ll wake up to find it’s 1988 again.

The hope on the horizon is that the long
distance carriers like U.S. Sprint, with
their GlobalLink, and MCI with their
Internet offering, can bail all this out
before it goes bad. Perhaps...

tronics. With a purely optical switch,
there is no conversion. The result? Try
a bandwidth in the 25,000 Gigabit
range. And development of the optical
switch to perform this very basic func¬
tion is actually pretty close.

If you want to peer into the crystal ball
a bit further into the future, most of
what’s inside your computer is basically
a series of millions of transistors - tiny
switches - layered into a micro¬
processor. Replace those with light
switches using light as both the trans¬
mission medium and the switching
mechanism, and again speeds go up by
several orders of magnitude. Picture a
100,000 MHz Pentium. A crystal PC
that starts to physically resemble the
crystal ball we’re peering into.

And no, I don’t want to hear from all
the service providers insisting that none
of this is true at THEIR site and that
my host must not know what they are
doing, etc., etc., ad nauseum. Have your
customers tell me. You might find they
see it differently.

It is the ultimate in irony, and thus
eminently predictable, that all of this is
occurring against one of the most
exciting backdrops of our age. Almost
everything you know about “limits”
with regards to speed and capacity is on
the verge of evaporating into historical
quaintness. Two years ago the debate
was over whether or not a Gigabit
network was physically possible and
how to engineer the almost unimagin¬
able switching speeds required to
support it. They’re already on the shelf.
And we’re on the cusp of one of the
largest leaps in technology ever contem¬
plated - optical computing.

Vacuum tubes are essentially devices
that control large flows of electrical
current with small ones - the basis of
amplification. The discovery at Bell
Labs that you could do the same thing
with a sandwich of doped germanium -
the PN junction (transistor) was the
enabling technology at the root of
everything since then. A little over a
year ago, Bell Labs again was the source
of the breakthrough with development
of an optical switch. It’s precisely the
same thing over again. We can use a
little weak light beam carrying intelli¬
gence to modulate a larger powerful
light source.

Why is this so important? Let’s take our
telecommunications system. A large
percentage of it is already fiber-optic.
But about every 25 miles or so you have
to re-amplify the signal with repeaters.
This involves conversion of a stream of
light pulses to electrical signals which
can then be used to control light from a
new source. The conversion brings
everything down to the speed of elec¬

So I’m enormously excited these days
about the technology frontier. The
perception that we’ve “seen that, done
that” is simply wrong. We AGAIN stand
on the cusp of a new dawn in technology

that will again change the world, before
we’re even done changing it the first
time. And it is disturbing to contem¬
plate that it all might be mired down by
“claw” down in Coral Gables - hip deep
in water in the only basement in all of
the Florida peninsula.

On the good news front, we are on the
final countdown to ONE BBSCON in
Atlanta. As of July 9, we already have
nearly 1600 registered for this annual
gathering of BBS operators, commercial
services, and Internauts and we’re not
to our “doubling day” yet. Hotel rooms
are already getting to be a bit of an
interesting game. If you don’t have one
yet, now would be a good time to call
somebody. The banquet Saturday night
for the Dvorak Awards for Excellence in
PC Telecommunications is shaping up
as quite the event. In May, they put out
some DOOR programs and other means

for submitting
electronic nomina¬
tions for who
should get the
awards this
year. By
mid-

June they
had
over
100,000
responses
I’m told. I
hope they weed
that down to a dozen
or so or it will be a
long evening.

We have over 140 educational sessions
scheduled on the magic session board,
and it looks like we may fill even the
INFORUM’s 100,000 square feet of
vendor space this year - with all vendors
vying to come up with the most clever
promotions and show discount specials
on modems, software, and other
geegaws. It looks like Atlanta will be
the focal point of the largest gathering
of BBS aficionados in history - coming
from some 40 countries to play with the
technology and find out how to hook
THEIR BBS to the Internet. From
conversations with many of the soft¬
ware developers, I’m convinced this will
be the first year real solutions in the
way of shippable product will be there
to allow what they want to happen.
Let’s just hope what they hook to isn’t
running at a net-crawl.

Jack Rickard
Editor Rotundus

JACK’S RECIPE FOR
CORN FLAKES

This is a cunning little recipe I
made up myself. After working all
night at your computer, it makes a
great snack just before bed at
dawn:

INGREDIENTS

4 lbs. Kellogs Corn Flakes
1 lb. Sugar
1/2 gallon milk

1 cup Maaggi brand soy sauce

Pour the flakes in a large mixing
bowl. Add sugar. Then add milk.
Top with soy sauce. Don’t over
stir. Serve with CNN News or NPN
Morning Edition. Feeds one if
hungry and not too picky.
Followup with a small serving of
“beef-in-the-bottom” yogurt for
dessert.

Boardwatch - August 1994 9

In My Humble Opinion

Letters to the Editor

Boardwatch Magazine

8500 W Bowles Ave Suite 210

Littleton Co 80123

Address correspondence to LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR, Boardwatch
Magazine, 8500 West Bowles Ave., Suite
210, Littleton, CO 80123, by fax to
(303)973-3731, or by e-mail to
LETTERS@BOARDWATCH.COM

Jack:

Thanks for the free sample magazine. I
enjoyed it. Seems to be a lot of talk
about the INTERNET this year in the
magazine. I like the internet but it
“feels” like what it is, a big mess
cobbled together by a bunch of school
teachers. Some of it works, a lot of it
doesn’t. Even DELPHI is hard to use,
hence this message through
CompuServe instead of DELPHI, the
local access DELPHI number is screwed
up tonight, no surprise there... Thanks
again for the magazine, I like them and
buy them from the newsstand once in a
while.

Ron Skala

70172.3355@COMPUSERVE.COM

Ron:

I confess some attraction to your
description of the Internet. “A big mess
cobbled together by a bunch of school
teachers... ” But I might point out it got
your message from you to me, which is
what it is all about. I rather picture it
as a bunch of University CompSci grad
students who, while the debate on e-
mail islands raged, snuck into the
switching room and interconnected
everybody while no one was looking.

Delphi’s signing on about 42,000 new
subscribers per month (and losing
nearly that many as well I suspect).
They had a little over twice that
number total when they first offered
Internet access a little more than a year
ago. It’s going to be a hot summer on
the databahn I do fear. And a lot of
people want to know more about this

“mess cobbled together by school¬
teachers... ” While it may seem a recent
phenomenon, we’ve been covering it
since 1989. While the coverage has
increased, there’s been no change in
editorial direction here.

Jack Rickard

Hey!

I just wanted to “congradulate” you on
your article in Boardwatch Magazine
about Digital Nation! You probably got
alot of hate mail from the users here,
but I think that your sentiments are
EXACTLY right! If you want to know
some really active boards, that aren’t
just filled with OneNet conference mail,
check out Kaizen Online (301)621-4108,
or even some of the small boards, that
get more posts with 100 dedicated users
than with 1000 plebians that think they
are diehard-bbsers! DigitalNation has
done less with more money and assets
than any other so-called “service” that I
know of!

Congrats!

Matt “dont let Bruce read this”
Wondolowski:-)
Matt_Wondolowski@csgi.com

PS, why not print that article again? it
holds even more truth a year later! The
other admins in the metro area
(includng myself) would LOVE to see it
again... just to burst dN’s bubble!

Matt:

If Digital Nation has done something to
raise such sentiments in other local
sysops in the metro area, then it sounds
to me as if perhaps they are finally
doing something worthwhile. Maybe we
should revisit it..

Jack Rickard

Jack:

Who the hell cares what the hell is an
NVN?

Your “In My Humble Opinion” section
of BoardWatch is the best section of the
rag. I enjoy your diatribes and your
sense of humor quite a bit. Like you,
I’ve never heard of NVN, but I’ve got to
ask you why you subjected your readers
to 132 column inches of these idiots
bitching about a magazine they don’t
even read.

Their ad this month was cute, but still
not sure I would have caught it without
having to read the 7 pages of NVN
crybaby whinings. NVN should invest
in presenting their service in a profes¬
sional manner, (eg 4-color ads, screen
shots, etc.) instead of encouraging their
lemming-like users to babble on and on.
Hell, you should charge them for an
additional 7 pages of ads in the
April/May issue.

Mark Graves

Fidonet: Mark Graves 1:109/187
Internet:

Mark.Graves@fl87.nl09.zl.fidonet.org

Mark:

Well, things were a little slow that
month, and it was kind of cute. It
detailed a “bombing run ” by people who
were totally unaware of what they were
bombing or why. For our readers, it
showed the regular progression from a
ridiculous demand, a surly reply, the
revolt of the munchkins, all in a three
part set. It all rang a bell here.

At one point in the past, almost every¬
body online knew everybody, and now
it’s grown to where nobody knows
anybody anymore and in fact there are
entire segments lost in cyberspace with
no Mr. Robot to issue warnings to Will
Robinson. It’s a little circular, but it
caught my fancy.

Curiously enough, NVN pulled the plug
in June. They had a board meeting at
U.S. Videotel, we’re told, and decided it
was bleeding a bit too much red. A LOT
of the activity on NVN seems to have
been freebie accounts. The next
morning, employees found themselves
with severence and a non-disclosure
agreement to sign and were gone the
same day. The system displayed a
message if you dialed modem that they
would be up in a couple of weeks with a
Windows interface. But it was dead. So
I guess the question has moved from
“What the hell is an NVN?” to more of
a “Where the hell is NVN?” Oh
well...that’s life in cyberville...a couple
of their sysops did step up after the
close and tell us they were under quite a
bit of pressure to get with the plan on
the Boardwatch e-mail campaign.

Jack Rickard

10 Boardwatch - August 1994

Jack,

Just picked up the April-May Board-
watch and read your response to the
folks who were giving you a hard time
about not knowing what a NVN is. You
made a comment about how so many of
the sysops were female and why this is
so. Answer: I don’t know. However, I
am one of the offline reader authors and
I happen to be a woman. Would I be
able to do something like this on
Cserve, Prodigy, AOL, GEnie, Bix,
Delphi, etc.? I doubt it. So while I’d be
decidedly out of my element on other
online services, not so on NVN. NVN
has really worked hard to make a place
for women on their service and added
many forums and topics that would
interest women when Prodigy pulled
the rug out from under the heavy user.

For instance, it has one of the most
active machine knitting forums that I
know of (don’t EVEN ask what the hell
is a knitting machine) in cyberspace
(and men are always welcome) and I
have yet to see someone flamed for
asking questions whose answers are
“obvious” to the men (or anyone else
reasonably literate about computers
;=>)■

Then today the Newsweek arrived and
it had an article that mirrored your
observations, which makes me now
conclude that at least one of my parents
was an alien. I am the person in this
family that pops the case off the
computer(s), is constantly upgrading
the hardware and software, formatted
my hard disk after having the computer
for 3 months just to see how to do it. So
apparently I don’t fit the “mold” of
typical female computer user.

I jumped into this scene rather late in
the game as my husband (the computer
systems/analyst) felt that computers
were essentially “toys” until the 486
became available, so I had limited
contact until we purchased one in
November of ‘92. After discovering
Prodigy by means of the free month, I
became totally hooked on computers,
email, and the capability of computers. I
recently purchased a 50mhz DX2 multi-
media machine and have a scanner, 2
modems, a dedicated phone line and 3
subscriptions to online services as well
as 5 internet email addresses as well as
the capability to hook the computer up
to my knitting machine (whew!! Makes
me tired to read it). My husband seems
to be content with the slower 486,
particularly after we got him a “real”
modem.

Back in December I decided I wanted to
learn to program, so I bought VB and
the rights to MCIOFF, the windows olr
used here on NVN, and have been
adding an upgrade to the program at
least every 2 weeks to the delight of an
enthusiastic group of users (mostly
men) who seem to at least admire my
tenacity, and put up with my learning.
Could I do this elsewhere?? I doubt it,
but NVN is more like family and friends
in a small town than anything I’ve ever
experienced anywhere else in cyber-
spaceland. Sure, there’s a pretty good
group of guys on the MSBASIC forum
on Cserve, several of which I correspond
with regularly as well as a group I keep
in touch with on Prodigy, but NVN is
more like home.

You had an assertion that management
was behind the letter writing campaign
to you. That’s not entirely true. Actu¬
ally it was a user who suggested it, and
proceeded to post to that effect in every
forum on every topic. It has often been
suggested that the Computer Shopper
guys be written to also, so you needn’t
feel singled out by the loyal NVN users.

However, the management didn’t
* discourage* it either, so if you want to
give them credit, so be it. You seem to
have strong opinions about just about
everything anyway (not being critical,
just observant) and who am I to ques¬
tion where you got your information??

Amy Stinson (mcioff@nvn.com,
astinson@nvn.com, amy.stinson@indy.com)

Amy:

I don’t know yet how to break it to you
people. It was a JOKE. We ran stories
on NVN before there WAS an NVN - as
you know it. I’m becoming embarrassed
for you NVNers. We were smacking
trooper George around for being a
dipstick and demanding that we
acknowledge NVN was essentially on
par with CompuServe - which it isn’t.
You all didn ’1 get it and launched the
attack live totally clueless. It’s been fun,
but enough already.

But I was unaware of the high level of
female participation in recent years on
the service and it does pique my
curiosity. There is no plausible reason
why computers are not as empowering
to women as to men and there never
were. Grace Hopper was fossilized at a
computer. Yet the numbers always
seem a little one sided on most services
- like 9 to 1. I get blasted by the femi-
Nazis regularly as if I somehow person¬
ally caused it. I didn’t, but it’s very real,

and I’m curious what about NVN you
found attractive.

Actually I am vaguely aware of machine
knitters. Oh, I probably know a little
more about it than I quite understand,
true enough. But a friend’s brother in
law works for a firm up in Boulder that
is one of the major vendors in this area.
Apparently, you can hook up a PC to
$10,000 or so of equipment, and it will
do some pretty amazing things in the
area of embroidery and creating designs
in textile. It would seem a fairly
substantial group has fired this up as a
home business of some consequence,
and for some, apparently a decidedly
profitable one.

Yes, actually I’m pretty sure you
COULD do the MCIOFF thing else¬
where, but that isn’t really the point.
Something about NVN made you feel
comfortable and inclined to do it, to a
greater degree than on other services.
This could be an important point for
online services in general. The concept
that it was real “friendly” is a little
vague. When you were in the room with
it, and it first started making friendly
noises, what did they sound like? If it
was because it was small and a close
knit group of people, success will kill
that most likely.

Enquiring minds want to know.
Perhaps the rest of cyberspace could be
made civil for participants of the gentler
persuasion.

Jack Rickard

Dear Jack:

You noted on page 46 of your April/May
1994 issue that Delphi detractors criti¬
cize Delphi for its plain ASCII interface.

I hope you will remind readers that
there are a lot of people out here who
want a plain ASCII interface.

I have an 8088 laptop that works fine. I
use it as a glorified typewriter and email
exchange device. My Xywrite word
processing software works much faster
than I can think.

There are only three technology
advances that could persuade me to
upgrade, even if I had a lot more cash
than I do:

1) the arrival of a laptop with a CD-Rom
drive and a floppy drive and a built-in
wireless modem for less than $1,000;

Boardwatch - August 1994 11

2) the arrival of an equally capable,
equally inexpensive laptop that can plug
directly into my brain; and

3) the arrival of a computer with artifi¬
cial intelligence that can do my writing
for me.

If I did a lot of desktop publishing or
designed complicated hypertext
systems, I might want a graphical user
interface. As it is now, I regard GUIs as
a waste of time and money. They burn
up computer power for no particularly
good reason. They rely on a language of
icons that is quickly achieving Chinese-
like complexity. They drastically
increase the complexity of the whole
system, creating many new ways for the
system to crash and many new places
for worms and viruses to hide.

I picked Delphi and considered GEnie
BECAUSE I could use an ASCII-based
interface to reach them. If Delphi elimi¬
nated its ASCII-based interface, I would
cancel my service.

Sincerely,

Allison Bell

ALLBELL@DELPHI.COM

Allison:

All good points. I think ultimately we
will always have a large number of
online services because many people do
want different things not only in
content, but also in interface. Each time
we do something to the Boardwatch
BBS, I am powerfully reminded by a
basket of e-mail from a group of vision-
impaired callers who want access to a
group of text-based news products, and
we’ve rearranged the furniture on them
once again.

I still use XyWrite myself. But the
graphical interfaces have captured the
imagination of the majority of online
users. And nothing need be given up. It
is quite possible for Delphi to introduce
a totally new graphics interface without
making any substantial changes to the
ASCII text based interface at all.

Jack Rickard

Jack:

Regarding your “Editor’s Notes” on the
obscenity convictions against the owner
of a BBS in Oklahoma City in the June
issue of Boardwatch Magazine ... I
wonder if you are not overstating the
case a tad.

In general, I think you are correct that
the US has moved much further
towards a totalitarian state than many
realize. Almost every day, federal, state
or local governments or their agencies
remove more of our freedom of choice to
act as we formerly did... for example,
Affirmative Action, Quotas, Set Asides,
American’s With Disabilities Act, Civil
Rights Acts and regulations by state
and federal Civil Rights Commissions,
Environmental Regulations that take
private property without compensation,
Family Leave Regulations (which I
might note, are now being suggested by
the administration that it be “paid”
leave ) politically correct speech codes,
and the list could go on for pages...
every time some special interest group,
such as women or minorities etc are
given special “rights” by law or regula¬
tions, it results in one less choice others
have to act as they did prior to the regu¬
lation/law... a small but typical
example., contract set asides for
minority contractors - non minority
contractors are therefore excluded...
another small example, but which could
be multiplied into a thousand examples
- handicapped parking places., for each
one, there is one less for non-handi¬
capped citizens.

And I wholeheartedly agree that, more
and more, law enforcement and regula¬
tory agencies, are using the ever
expanding body of criminal law and civil
regulations to harass citizens to “keep
them in line” with a political agenda...
in that arena, we are rapidly
approaching the system as it existed in
Russia... you’re example of search w/o
warrant in public housing is right on
target... and unfortunately for all of us,
the current administration believes in
government control right down to their
toenails.

Having said that, I think you are
beating the wrong horse ( if you will
excuse the mixed metaphor ) in the
obscenity matter. I am a little fuzzy on
the facts, and they may be important
here... I gather that the BBS owner was
selling the adult CD ROMs through a
separate business and the images were
not available for downloading. If such is
the case, I see little difference than
selling hard core pictures at the local
adult bookstore. I don’t see where the
fact that they were digitized images on
CD ROM is distinguishable from, say,
magazine images, other than the minor
fact that one is easier to view than the
other... if, in fact, the images were on
the BBS and available for down¬
loading... that is a different matter as

far as the legal issues and possible viola¬
tions of federal law.

Let me say that I am a First Amend¬
ment absolutist and therefore believe
that there should be no governmental
exercise of censorship except in very
limited circumstances, such as excite¬
ment to riot etc.

On the case in point, almost, if not all,
50 states have obscenity statutes. The
US Supreme Court has clearly stated
that “obscenity” does not enjoy First
Amendment protection. I suspect the
images that Davis was distributing were
hard core obscenity. By the looks of the
criminal counts, he was prosectuted
under a garden variety obscenity
statute, which has probably passed
constitutional muster. It is not valid to
complain that other crimes of a more
serious nature have less penalties, or
more technicalities that allow a lesser
sentence.

Your thrust, instead, should be to
change the penalties or wording of the
offensive statute... remember, most
criminal laws and penalties are enacted
pursuant to public pressure and not at
the whim of some police department or
deranged legislator... and obscenity is
clearly material that offends millions of
Americans ( even though they may
secretly use it.. <g> )... and true, a
highly motivated and organized group,
such as Christian Fundamentalists, can
get stiffer obscenity laws passed which
the majority may not care a whit about,
or may even disagree with, but, unfor¬
tunately, not to the extent that they will
fight... we have a prime example in
Colorado in the recent legislative
session where an attempt was made to
stiffen obscenity laws... and since it
failed, you can bet it’s supporters will
get it on the next general ballot., and
my guess is it will pass handily.

So, Tony Davis may be the victim of a
political crusade abetted by the police
and prosecutors, but the fact remains
he was apparently in violation of a
constitutional criminal statute... the
answer is to change the laws and elimi¬
nate the oppressive regulations...
however, since that takes hard, hard
work and putting one’s neck on the
chopping block, I am not holding my
breath.

And, as an aside, I suspect that adult
BBS will become a thing of the past, at
least to the extent that they carry
“adult” images for downloading... adult

12 Boardwatch - August 1994

EMail raises all kinds of different
issues.

JOHN PILON
John:

From the points you raise, it would
appear I rather understated the case.
Most of the objections to this editorial
were of “the law is the law” form you
use, and I think miss the point entirely.

If we are in a situation where normally
law abiding citizens are facing serious
jail time for info-crimes, with not only
Tony Davis’s BBS, but many others
across the country being shutdown and
similarly threatened, concurrent with
the burning of LA, gang wars and
murder among children, and serial
killers, then we don’t really have a
problem with adult images, electronic
bulletin boards, or anything akin. We
have a problem with a legal system
completely awry. I don’t want to
reword anything. I don’t want to talk
to my legislator. What I was referring
to was the conversion of our entire
legal apparatus away from protecting
individuals from crimes and main¬
taining civil order and into a much
more active enforcement arm of the
state dealing with taxes, state security,
and political stance. I was finally
KEYED to this by the act of learning a
middle aged family man operating a
productive business faces 35 years for
selling CD-ROMS, not one of the
crimes that terrify me personally and
cause fear for the future of our nation.

You cannot eliminate all evil by state
control, you can only concentrate it in
the state. But you can eliminate all
freedom, and conceivably most of the
visible good, in the process. If we have
reached the point where the sale of CD-
ROMs is equivalent to a capital crime -
we’re there buddy. It’s already
happened.

Jack Rickard

Dear Jack...

Almost every letter written to you
starts out with a little brown-nosing by
telling you what a great magazine they
think you have... so let me do the same;)

Out of all the computer magazines I
peruse, I actually READ all of yours.
It’s the most informative I’ve come
across, when it comes to the technology
that I’m so fond of BBSing and its
possibilities. I started in BBSing about
12 years ago when I was 16, and

received a $250+ CompuServe bill that
I couldn’t pay... it didn’t take me long
to discover FREE BBSs. Wow what a
concept I thought it was! I never
thought that so many things would
have happened with the technology as
it has, and will! And your magazine
helps to open my eyes to more and
more potentials.

I know you’re not Gay, but I’m writing
to invite you and your readers to call
my BBS, Matchmaker Mecca, which
serves as a place for Gays and Lesbians
to meet, and chat with each other. Our
2400 baud number is 908/821-1684,
and our 9600 baud number is 908/297-
8796. I’ve included a File Number and
Password for you to use, which will
allow you to skip all the initial registra¬
tion steps.

I’d also like to tell you a little bit about
myself, and the SysOp experiences I’ve
had. I’m sure you’re a busy man, and I
hope I don’t bore you so much that you
throw my letter in the circular file!

My first BBS was started about 12
years ago, and it ran on a Tandy CoCo,
as we so fondly called our Color
Computer’s. That board was running
with one line, a 300 bps modem, and
two 320K floppy drives. It was running
for several years... and I called it CCIE
(CoCo Info Exchange). The software
was written in BASIC, and modified
heavily by me. The theme of the board
was related to CoCo’s and Star Trek
(gee how nerdy it must have looked). It
lasted about four years - and the equip¬
ment was upgraded to two 1200 baud
modems, by the end of the board’s life.
I’m also proud to say, that CCIE was
featured in a local newspaper, for a
story on Bulletin Boards. I lost a lot of
callers when I started running beta
software that was written by a genius
(literally, not sarcastically) friend of
mine, Greg Miller. It was written in
assembly (no, not C or PASCAL, but
ASSEMBLY, on the 6809 CPU). It was
called TCBBS, and it has almost all the
features of TBBS... but it was bug-
ridden, and Greg moved onto the
Amiga, as did I. After purchasing an
Amiga I started a BBS named The
White House, on my Amiga. It was
themed around politics and Star Trek
(another odd mix?). This was run on
more bug-ridden software, and I even¬
tually gave up my dealings with
Amigas and CoCos, altogether;
although I still think the Amiga is a
great system. My entrance into the
IBM world began, after I graduated
college and started a job as a computer
programmer, using IBM’s of course.

After purchasing my first IBM, I
started another BBS using Wildcat
software.It’s title was Oz BBS, which
was themed around The Wizard of Oz.
But more specifically, it was a place for
Gays and Lesbians to meet each other.
It grew to four lines, two of which were
14.4K. But, being the technical person
that I am, I liked to tinker with the
computer and the BBS - so the board
was often down. Callers lost interest,
despite my success at getting FidoNet
linked to the board, which I never
thought I’d get working when I first
started experimenting with FrontDoor!
My members started calling a neigh¬
boring BBS titled Matchmaker Mecca
(MM), which was running DLX. Oz
BBS was taken off-line less than two
years after I started it, while MM
continued to boom. I gave up to the
competition :(

I became friends with the SysOp of
MM, back when he first started
running the board almost 3 years ago.
His board started with 1 line, and has
grown to 9 lines. His method of success
has primarily been focused around
three things: 1) Use the KISS method
(Keep It Simple, Stupid); 2) Keep the
board up and running at all times,
except for maintenance; 3) Provide a
unique way to Chat and Meet other
Gays and Lesbians. My friend’s name
is Nick, and he put a great deal of
effort into modifying the base DLX
setup, to make it run as it does today.
His dream was to turn the BBS into a
Prodigy type service, exclusively for
Gays and Lesbians. I believe he would
have done it, because he’s always been
an over-achiever. Unfortunately, he
developed AIDS many years ago, and
has since gotten worse. He was unable
to continue running the board, and
several months ago, he asked if I would
take over operation of MM for him. I
felt honored that he asked, and I
accepted the offer. He is still most
concerned about me sticking to the
KISS method, and keeping the board
running at all times. I learned the hard
way, that these are usually require¬
ments for a successful BBS.

Matchmaker Mecca still runs today,
much like Nick designed it. And I’ve
since begun researching several things.
One of them, includes setting up an
advertising section, where members
can search for businesses that are Gay
and Lesbian friendly. This is turning
out to be quite a task, but should be
rewarding when it’s completely setup.
I’ve also begun researching how I can
connect MM to the outside world -
primarily to allow more people access

Boardwatch - August 1994 13

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VFX 28.8 External V.FC/V.32

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Zoom Telephonies

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ZyXEL

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$499

$349

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U-1496RE/16.8 Rackmount

$499

$349

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ZyXEL

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$799

$499

714-693-0762

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The above quoted prices are for purchases by qualified Sysops only. Public purchases are retail prices, and are not available
through Boardwatch Magazine.

Damian:

to MM at a lower cost, and to provide
more information for my members.

DLX is rather limited in connectivity...
and the company itself is now out of
business. In fact, the software,
including the source code, is available
for download on CompuServe in the
IBMBBS forum (I uploaded it myself).
It has been released to the public
domain, and the author hopes that
somebody will someday pick up the
project and roll with it. However, I
don’t plan to wait for that day. I’ve
researched other BBS software that I
think would provide me with everything
me and my callers would like, without
having to change too much of the look
an feel of Matchmaker Mecca. I have
decided on TBBS/TDBS, using Ultra¬
chat, TIMS, PIMP, and whatever else
may develop. Ultrachat appears to be
quite a nice piece of software, and it
allows for all the functionality of DLX,
plus a lot of extras. A TDBS program
titled User Profile System is included,
which give all the Matchmaker features
of DLX, and of course lots of additional
functionality. My congratulations to the
wizards at eSoft for pulling all this off!

I have not yet converted to TBBS, but
plan to at some time in the future. My
personal interest is connecting to the
Internet. But, most of my callers prob¬
ably don’t have an interest in the
Internet, yet. I know as more people
realize what’s available via the Internet,
they will begin asking for it. And I hope
that your magazine continues to carry
informative articles about the Internet.
What I’d like to see in the future, is a
comparison of all the major Internet
service providers, and how they differ
regarding their services, and value.
Please consider publishing an article of
this type, at some time in the future!

I could go on to type/talk more... but I
can see from above that I’ve already
been too long-winded.

My best regards to you and your staff,

Darren (File Number 2),

SysOp of Matchmaker Mecca
908/821-1684

Darren:

By golly a guy needs a little brown¬
nosing now and again - thanks. Inter¬
esting journey you are on friend. I think
many of our readers will identify with
some of its elements.

Jack Rickard

Dear Mr. Rickard,

I have been reading “BOARDWATCH”
Magazine for almost four months now,
and I have to say that I like it very
much. It is light hearted and very
understandable. If an article includes
technical terms, your writers go out of
their way to explain them in plain
english. Your magazine is very easy to
read, and has an air about it that makes
you want to keep reading. This is a
quality that most computer related
magazines lack. You are also not afraid
of controversy, you say something, stick
by it, and if you are wrong you are not
afraid to say so. If you have an opinion,
you state it how you mean it, you don’t
try to smooth it over to please everyone.
This is what I like about your magazine!

I was wondering what is going to
happen with PGP now that ViaCrypt is
selling a commercial variant inside a
new version of WinCIM? Is the govern¬
ment going to try to ban this program
due to the world wide service coverage
of Compu$erve, and thus the potential
for this PGP version of WinCIM to be
accidently let out of the US? Or will
they do what we have all wanted them
to do, and un-ban the export of PGP?
What is CompuServe’s opinion on PGP
within their service, do they want the
controversy? I am very interested in the
future of PGP, any and all comments
you can give me on this aspect of the
PGP debate or anything else would be
greatly appreciated.

As you can see I am using PGP, have
signed this message, and included my
Public Key.

I have one more question for

you.are we related? As you can see

my name is Damian Rickard, and I have
relatives in Colorado as well. My uncle
lives in Denver, my Grandmother in
Pueblo West, and I have cousins, aunts,
and uncles in Colorado Springs. Where
does your family come from? Mine is
originally from New York, Howes Cave
to be exact. Does your family come from
anywhere near that? I have a family
tree tracing my Rickard side if you
would like to take a look. This is inter¬
esting.

Thanks for your time!!

Damian Rickard

Damian. Rickar d@ cinbbs. sccsi. com

30 Teal Lane

Groton, CT 06340-2620

To my knowledge, ViaCrypt is NOT
selling a new version inside WinCIM,
and CompuServe has nothing to do with
it materially. They sell a version that
works with WinCIM, and again to my
knowledge, only sell it in the U.S.

ViaCrypt is just another distribution
point for PGP. They put it in a package,
they sell it for a price, and they have
cleared all the patent issues. This
makes it purchasable and usable by
corporations, government agencies (oh,
yes they do!) and others that can’t
really put the free version into play very
well.

PGP 2.6 is also released, and described
in our July issue just past. I think PGP
has sufficient foothold at this point
worldwide, that all the government
mandates in hell couldn’t blow it out of
the water. Whether people are clinging
to it simply because of the romance of
its potentially forbidden nature, or
whether they actually have any plans to
use it someday, remains to be seen.

I’m originally from Cape Girardeau
Missouri, and much of my family hails
from thereabouts or originally from Illi¬
nois going back a bit. But they’ve bred
widely, and apparently with some
enthusiasm and can be found across the
land in little obstinate pockets of
Rickardism. If you find anyone of portly
build holding forth loudly, at consider¬
able length, and to some detail slightly
beyond what they could possibly know
about the subject at hand, you’ve prob¬
ably found one. The daughter of one of
my cousins does live in Boulder
Colorado currently - no other relations
in the state that I’m aware of.

Jack Rickard

Hi Jack...

Whew I managed to get my new
subscription into Boardwatch, JUST in
time to see your article’s on Telnet and
the rest of whats happening on the
internet.

As I’m sure by now you know that I run
a PCBoard BBS here in South Africa. I
have a LIVE internet feed to my offices,
so I thought it would be GREAT to get
people to TELNET into my bbs ....
Whew this was a like trying to land a
man on the moon. I must admit, the
people I asked about getting my system
Telnetable, were not really very helpful,
in fact most were downright rude.
Anyway the upshot of it all is that

20 Boardwatch - August 1994

Netline Flagship is the FIRST BBS in
South Africa to be reachable via telnet.

I’m not writing to give myself a plug,
but I am writting to you to let your
readers and yourself know that this can
be done.

We also run a full FTP / GOPHER and
Telnet link from our PCBoard. This is
how we have done it ... and to all those
authors who would not help ... to bad
here is the info :)

On the Telnet / Finger side, there is a
magnificent door available from Mark
Moorley. The file name is idtell7.zip (I
believe boardwatch.com has version 1.4
online) This door works with PCBoard
and allows one to have Telnet and
finger access.

As far as giving my users FTP access
was concerned ... that was another
hurdle, that I had to overcome. I loaded
up PC/TCP by FTP Software. This is a
great implementation of a host of
TCP/IP tools. However it is NOT BBS
AWARE. So I decided to write a from
tend for this system myself. I now offer
full FTP accesss via my BBS for my
users to the outside world. I use
PC/TCP’s implementation of FTP via
my front end. My front end program
does quite a few things, I will be making
it available as shareware to the rest of
the world shortly. It allows the sysop to
setup a welcome FTP screen for the
users ... ie telling them how to run the
door. Then it passes the user parame¬
ters etc ... across to FTP.EXE. The
program is quite neat in that should the
user FTP files across from a site, it will
automatically flag them for download,
once the user returns to the board, and
also move them over to a file area where
other users can download them.

We also managed to get irclOO.zip to be
doorway happy. We just had to flag out
setup files as READ ONLY. That works
great.

As far as Telnet goes : I found an author
who not only was helpful but also went
so far as to put me on his Beta test
team. His name is Brad Clements and
he has written a product called Murk-
works. It currently only runs on A
novell netware server, but is by far the
best implementation of a telnet server
for PCBoard that I have seen.

In a nutshell, we are still new to this
whole setup, but I am learning as fast
as I can. I get quite a few sysops asking
me how to do this, so I thought by drop¬

ping you a note I should catch all of
them in one foul sweep.

Should you or any one of your readers
want anymore information, I will be
more than happy to give out what I
have. I can be reached at the following
addresses:

Telnet:fcsbbs.netline.co.za (196.7.3.154)
Email: ian@netline.co.za

I hope that this letter would at least
help one or two sysop’s who are desper¬
ately looking to go LIVE on the Internet
with their BBS software. Once again
Jack, THANK YOU for giving us the
BEST BBS MAGAZINE AROUND.

Kind Regards

Ian Gerada

Ian:

Pleased to hear from someone so far
away. The Internet puzzle is an
engaging one. I am also very interested
in Brad Clement’s efforts at Murk-
Wurks, some very solid stuff, but
blooming later than I had hoped. It is
my understanding he will be at ONE
BBSCON to describe some further
successes in this area.

Jack Rickard

Jack,

I could not have said it better myself!
Thank you for having the “sand” to
publish your comments and the unpub¬
lished comments of others who I will
call the “thinking majority”.

Unfortunately -1 believe you are correct
and having fought for our Government,

I see myself arming AGAINST my
current Government too. I never
thought this day would come.

Aaron, Sysop
Shooters Corner BBS
703-242-1767

Aaron:

It’s a hard thing to consider.

Jack Rickard

Jack:

Yeah, I know, I know. Why don’t I have
a subscription to Boardwatch instead of

running to the news stand. My local
news stand almost always has an ample
supply- if I get there fast enough.

I’ve been BBSing since the days of
CPM, and have seen many mags about
the joys of on-line. Yours is the best one
I have found on this continent. I may
browse, but I don’t buy the mags that
dare to call themselves competitors.

I am also ready to launch my own BBS
serving primarily the interests of inven¬
tors, innovators, entrepreneurs and
those interested in space and
astronomy. By the way, I used Board-
watch as my sole research source when
selecting my BBS package- The Major
BBS.

My real reason for writing is to toss in
my two cents worth on the war over
commercialization of the Usenet. First,
when will newcomers to the Net and
the media, realize that Usenet is not
Internet? It is a part of it, with separate
constitutions governing what is allowed
and not allowed in each newsgroup- at
least in the moderated ones.

There has been so much acid comment
generated on this topic, that if I could
collect it all, I could clean every brick in
my house.

Internet is basically e-mail, FTP, and
Telnet and netters using those feature
need never peek at Usenet. But they do,
because the user groups are peppered
with useful information pointing
inquiring minds to sources through the
core Net services.

Proponents for a non-commercial
Usenet argue that since access to the
Net involves expense- usually block
time plus phone charges, they are being
charged to receive advertising. Some¬
thing like robo-faxes of advertisements
to your fax machine on expensive fax
paper you pay for, plus machine wtear
and tear.

The problem lies in the mixing of ads
and what in a printed news environ¬
ment would be called editorial. Some
news groups on Usenet are running
more ads than discussion, and that’s the
bone that makes no-commercial netters
choke.

An equitable fix is to have one commer¬
cial area for every newsgroup where the
commercial question is a problem. Not
all newsgroups are weighted with ads.
Many netters WANT to see press
releases and advertisements. Let them
read their commercial material without

Boardwatch - August 1994 21

treading on the holy ground of discus¬
sion.

Usenet participation is esentially “free”.
If there is no quick resolution to this
editorial/ad problem, there is a very real
danger that the commercial side of
Usenet and/or the Net itself will fall
into the hands of a few powerful
conglomerates who, in the name of
profit, will charge rates that effectively
deny access to individuals, small busi¬
nesses and entrepreneurs.

These idea-generators have been using
Usenet (up to now) as a sounding board
for products and services in the concept
or start-up phase. Deprived of “free”
forums to test their wares, many good
ideas will die prematurely.

Granted, some Netters have been
outright abusing Usenet by uploading
electronic chain letters, fraudulent
schemes and once in a while proposals
so blatantly illegal, that it seems the
poster is seeking lodging courtesy of the
state. But their numbers don’t warrant
crushing all commercial material on
Usenet.

Of course all the commercial material
could be moved to FTP sites. But
finding that FTP site is normally done
through Usenet. I find Usenet has
pointed me to more useful FTP sites
than Archie, Gopher and WAIS
combined- although I still use them
when Usenet fails me.

There is a _cost penalty_ to this
approach. I access the NET through a
provider that includes access to Usenet
as part of a basic subscription. I pay
extra for block time for the core Net
functions- e-mail, FTP, TELNET, etc.

Ads that I could view for “free” through
Usenet cost in block time when I must
FTP or TELNET them. And because
the sites may be far-flung, I seldom get
all the throughput built into my high
speed modem- which means I require
more time on-line.

I don’t ever recall being forced to pay
for the flyers delivered to my door.

So netters, push for parallel commercial
newsgroups in Usenet. If you are a
Usenet purist, remember, nobody is
forcing you to read the commercial
material. You can configure your news¬
reader to pretend they don’t exist. Let’s
stop the flame wars and solve this
problem before Big Business solves it
for us- their way.

Daveb.Edwards@Canrem.com (Dave
Edwards)

Sirius Enterprises,

P.O. Box 730,

Barrie, Ontario, Canada
L4M 4Y5

Dave:

Yeah, why don’t you? If we could get all
17 million or so BBS enthusiasts in
North America to subscribe, Jim
Dunmyer would have a BIG letters
section every month, and we’d be in fat
city.

I don’t really know what to think of
USENET. You’re quite right to point
out that USENET is a collection of
distributed public message forums, with
no real connection to the Internet. The
Internet has traditionally been a major
channel of distribution, but actually I
believe the USENET began primarily in
UUCP land, and its distribution
channel is not really very relevant.

The discussion about commercial adver¬
tising in public message groups
predates almost everything. I think it is
coming to USENET strongly now
largely based on size. As to the “paying
to get advertising” over USENET argu¬
ment, it is specious. You don’t have to.
You can disconnect. More than
anything, USENET is an experiment in
having rules, and not having them - a
rather publicly shared forum without a
captain. It exhibits the ultimate
freedom of expression, along with all
the flaws of the concept. It is inter¬
esting in that alone, and I for one don’t
want to do anything “aboutit.”

The biggest problem it faces now is
success. A full feed is running some 90
MB per day and more than doubling
annually. How much mail can you
read?

Jack Rickard
Jack,

I have to take this time to tell you a
couple of things. First, I have never
come across a person who is an editor of
such a wonderful magazine that has the
guts to explain the true problems that
we here in the US are facing today.
Bravo! Keep up the great work. I have
read several of your editorials in the
past couple of months and you have
been right on track. I myself feel exactly
the way you do. As an AVID Bircher, I
know that not many people (and
certainly not editors of GREAT maga¬
zines ie.. Media) will tell people like it

is. I think that you are to be
commended for your truthfulness!

Second, I have to tell you how
impressed I am with your magazine
overall. Certainly the top of every
Sysops list who wants meaningful infor¬
mation and excellent coverage of those
things affecting BBS’s around the
country today! Brian’s article about
Ability Online shows how much Board-
watch cares! We here at the American
Dream Information Network will count
it a privilage and honor to offer your
fine magazine to our subscribers on¬
line.

Thank you Jack and all you staff. Please
keep up the great work, and I look
forward to your next bulls-eye editorial.

God Bless!

Richard Sears

Sysop - American Dream Information
Network

rsears@crash.cts.com

Richard:

Thanks for the kind words. Board-
watch actually isn’t really about agree¬
ment. On any given issue most of our
readers have a variety of positions, and
whether or not we agree is largely moot,
and whether they agree with me almost
entirely so. We can examine some of
the developments, postulate on what
they mean and don’t, and try to avoid
drying out technical matter to the point
it becomes unreadable. There is an
enormous amount of romance attached
to the birth and development of an
industry - even a technical one. If we
can bring some of that out, it becomes
more pleasurable for everyone.

In any event, I’m pleased you enjoyed
the read.

Jack Rickard

22 Boardwatch - August 1994

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Telebits

Instead of the tidying up of features we
expected, this new Wildcat represents
some significant changes in direction
for the product, nearly 250 new
features, and is described by the
company as a top to bottom re-write.
Whatever you thought you knew about
Wildcat! - it’s changed.

NOT THE SAME FOUR
SCREENS ANYMORE

B BS software is unlike word proces¬
sors, spreadsheets, or any of the
other “categories” of software available.
For one thing, we’ve never all actually
agreed on what a BBS is, much less on
what the software should do. Bulletin
Board software packages are nearly
enough operating systems or develop¬
ment platforms, and it is often the case
that hundreds of add-ons, utilities, and
additional programs are developed by
the user base to extend the functions of
the BBS. What a BBS is, and what
features the software should embody,
tend to revolve around what you think
a BBS should do, and what you think
should be done on a BBS. There may
be a loose consensus, but this is still
very much an emerging genre.

One of the more inflammatory ques¬
tions over the years has centered
around the user interface. The
“common interface” camp eschewed
complicated labyrinths of menus and
byzantine services for a couple of stan¬
dard operating screens with very stan¬
dardized commands. F for files, G for
Goodbye, etc. You could tailor the
ANSI screen of the main menu, but the
keys always worked the same way.
This did let callers navigate a new
system with some familiarity, and made
it easier for software developers to
write communication utilities that
depended on certain functions being in
the same place. But it also led to a
suburban tract housing sameness to the
increasingly vast BBS-scape.

The other school of thought held that
the entire BBS should be the creative
expression of the BBS OPERATOR -
not the BBS software author. This
view noted that BBS software should be
a design tool properly in the hands of
the owner.

I kind of knew how this one would come
out. In the early 80’s I wrote a program
titled PROFIT PLAN that allowed you
to generate various break-even analysis

WILDCAT! BBS VERSION 4.0

T hree of the Boardwatch crew trav¬
eled to Bakersfield California for
the weekend on June 10 - ostensibly to
look over the new Wildcat! BBS version
4.0 from Mustang!Software!Inc.!. Actu¬
ally, we wanted to see their new office
complex, drink some beer and eat
chicken at the barbecue they were
hosting for Wildcat!sysops! to get a
preview of the new release - and maybe
check out some alarming rumors
concerning the women of nearby
Fresno. It was planned as an idyllic
weekend away.

Turns out to have been a bit of work.
Mustang has suffered some success in
the past couple of years with their
Wildcat! BBS software package and the
QmodemPro terminal program. They

claim to have an installed base of some
30,000 Wildcat! bulletin boards fielding
about a million calls per month, and
some 80,000 users of QmodemPro.
They sold nearly 11,000 copies of
Wildcat in 1993. The event of June 11
was a kind of open house where about
150 Wildcat BBS operators and faithful
ventured to Bakersfield to see the new
wares and tour the new Mustang head¬
quarters building. The company is
reported to have paid some $980,000
for an isolated campus-like building on
Lake Ming Road outside of Bakersfield.
We arrived in Bakersfield on Friday, to
a city-wide power outage, and got some
mileage out of the “final testing” wise¬
cracks. It was a very warm evening in
Bakersfield.

But Saturday turned out to be a full day
of classes on the new 4.0 version - with
air conditioning AND electrical power.

24 Boardwatch - August 1994

functions on products. You could enter
a variety of fixed costs, variable costs,
and other loading factors to determine
that at a certain price you would need
to sell a given amount of product to
break even. Or conversely, the price
required to breakeven at a certain unit
sales. Neat idea and in fact sold quite a
few of them for the day. It was easy to
use, but naturally, with each customer
there came one more suggestion for how
to improve it. My first hint.

And I was not alone. There were a
number of people, even in 1980 and
1981, who were writing programs and
all sorts of financial modeling programs
were popular. Our collective view of
programs and programming of the day
caused all of this to appear rational.
About that time Dan Bricklin’s VISI-
CALC program crested into popularity
and the world changed.

Actually, I had written a spreadsheet -
forcing all users to do it Jack’s way.
VISICALC empowered the user to do it
HIS way - and it became a TOOL -
rather than a PROGRAM. The differ¬
ence is crucial. The entire personal
computer revolution, and similarly
today’s communications revolution,
revolves around empowering the USER
- even if it equips him to do stupid
things. You designed your own
breakeven analysis, or whatever, using
a spreadsheet. You could even make
mistakes. You could do ugly, night¬
marish things that could ruin your bid
on an enormous construction job,
causing you to lose millions of dollars.
You could do things that didn’t even
make enough sense to cause damage.
The power to create is the power to
make ugly. But in every case, given a
choice, computer users overwhelmingly
choose software tools over software
programs.

Wildcat! had been very much in the
program camp. You ran Jim’s four
screens, and the company even had a
paternalistic view of “their callers”
wanting them to feel at home on any
Wildcat! BBS they called. No more.
With Version 4.0 Mustang has
completely gone for the “BBS as a
design tool” paradigm. Life will be more
complicated, but much more powerful,
for Wildcat! BBS operators of the
future.

The tale starts with the basic BBS func¬
tions. There are approximately 52
things you can do on a Wildcat BBS -
list files, read messages, go to other
menus, enter a questionnaire, etc.
Now, the sysop can assign any of them
to any key on any menu he wants, and
have as many menus as he likes, with
one menu calling another up to 1000
levels deep. Your BBS can look very
much like YOUR BBS, as pretty, or as
ugly, as you can make it.

But the company has implemented
something I’ve been raving about alone
in the woods for years - basically a CAD
program for BBS software design.
Their wcPRO utilities let you design
screens, set all options and display char¬
acteristics, and mouse about through a
pictorial menu tree to see how it all fits
together. At a mouse click, you can go
view the screen as a caller would see it -
even RIP graphic screens. You can
logon to the BBS, even when there isn’t
one yet, and navigate about, then
return to your design efforts to fix all
the things that are broke. They make it
look easy. wcPro is $99 and also
includes some fax utilities that will
allow callers to fax themselves docu¬
ments as easily as downloading files.

That represents an entire change in
philosophy and a whole new Wildcat!
BBS. But it isn’t what pasted me to the
wall in Bakersfield. Greg Hewgill, who
we are assured will soon shave whether
he needs to or not, has created an
masterpiece of software they call the
wcCODE - Custom Online Development
Engine.

At $149, wcCODE is a QuickBASIC
compiler in an editor environment that
looks like Borland’s old TurboBasie.
But think of it as a BBS BASIC. In
addition to the full BASIC command set
(never standardized but that’s the idea),
wcCODE also includes all RIP graphics
commands, all 52 Wildcat BBS func¬
tions, some special functions to easily
access message bases and user data¬
bases, and a few comm specialties as
well. Anything EXISTING in Wildcat

can be done from this program, and a
lot more as well.

It compiles your code into .WCX files.
The .WCX files can be run as events.
They can be tied to any key on any
menu so that when a caller presses that
key, it runs the .WCX program. In fact,
you can write a .WCX with the name
LOGON.WCX, and from the moment
the modem answers, your .WCX
program is in control. Since Qmodem
has a very similarly structured script
language now, you could conceivably
write an entire automated terminal
function in Qmodem, and an entire
comm server application in .WCX, and
you don’t actually have a Mustang
designed BBS or terminal program in
your way AT ALL.

We kept looking for the wall on this
one. We can’t find it. You don’t need to
EVER use ANY of Wildcat, you can
design your own BBS from scratch. Or
simply tailor a few things. The new
model strains the terminology. Scott
Hunter, trying to demonstrate the
power of this thing to the attendees,
variously referred to the programs as
wcCODE applications, .WCX files,
scripts, and repeatedly “doors” which
has been the usual model for add-ons to
Wildcat in the past. Finally, Mustang
President Jim Harrer came to the front
of the room bellowing that they were
NOT doors and shouldn’t be called
doors. He then took a few questions
from the crowd and in less than four
minutes had himself called them doors
three times. It’s a change in thinking -
even for Mustang.

.WCX files can also call DOS batch files,
other .WCX files, etc. And they can
reach into the caller database for
example to fetch CALLER ID data
stored there by the modem, or the

Boardwatch - August 1994 25

increased from 150 lines
to 64 kilobytes, and the
variable size in the header
for TO and FROM and
SUBJECT was increased
to 70 bytes each.

There was little mention
of TCP/IP connectivity
and we think we know
why. Wildcat traditionally
is a LAN based BBS. If
you want multiple nodes,
you use a Novell LAN
with a Wildcat BBS on
each node. Wildcat! does
offer a Platinum version
they previously called IM
that allows up to 8 nodes
per computer, but it is
still heavily affiliated with
Novell and LANtastic
LANs. In fact, you can
enter a Novell logon name
in the user database, and
Wildcat will go so far as to
send a LAN message to
that person’s station noti¬
fying them they have mail
on the BBS.

Sysop Steve Crippen at the Mustang
Support BBS (805) 873-2400

message database to add or delete
messages, search messages, etc. It is
enormous power. But at the same time
promises to be much more stable than
conventional “doors.”

While you need the $149 wcCODE add¬
on to WRITE .WCX files, you don’t need
it to RUN them. Any Version 4.0
Wildcat can run a .WCX program. It
looks like this will spur third-party
development of programs and utilities
for Wildcat into a mini-industry of its
own.

Brad Clements of Murk-
Wurks in Potsdam New
York had done an FTP
Netware Loadable Module
(NLM) that allows you to connect a
Novell Netware server to TCP/IP and
the NLM makes an FTP site. He’s
taken an interest in connecting BBSs to
TCP/IP by creating additional Novell
NLM’s for telnet, SMTP, gopher,
WWW, and so forth. The telnet NLM
for example, will allow people to logon
to a BBS on the LAN - if the BBS
supports a FOSSIL driver. Mustang
somewhat quietly noted at the meeting
that theirs does now. So we would look
for Mustang to continue the affiliation
with LANs to reach Internet nirvanna,
while beefing up some of the underlying
infrastructure to allow it to make sense.

INTERNET CONNECTIVITY

he question on many attendees
mind was on connectivity -
primarily to the Internet. And many
thought they were disappointed. They
shouldn’t be. It’s in there.

First, the underlying infrastructure has
been beefed up in some important ways
for wider mail systems. The number of
message areas or conferences supported
was increased from a 1000 to 32,760 - it
will hold all newsgroups for now by a
factor of about four. Each message
conference can hold 65,520 messages.
The maximum size of a message was

With regards to the more modest
requirements of linking a Wildcat
system to the domain name e-mail
system via UUCP, they introduced a
new product titled wcGATE that
combines UUCP, QWK, and MHS mail
into a single gateway. And it looked
quite advanced over their earlier
wcUUCP efforts. The new gateway not
only allows Wildcat to send and receive
UUCP mail and newsgroups in some
quantity from a UNIX host provider,
but actually to use several hosts, and
actually they can now act as HOSTS as
well - passing on newsgroups and mail
to OTHER bulletin boards or callers.

This may be key. See our article this
issue on WinNetMail.

They had previously had some difficul¬
ties with their UUCICO program to do
this. They have since come to terms
with Jorge Cwik and are using the
FXUUCICO program that has become
the performance standard in this area.
We’ve reviewed this UUCICO in the
past and consider it the best available
for the DOS platform. With the new 64
KB message size limit, 32,760 confer¬
ences, and the large fields, Wildcat
should do USENET and e-mail quite
handily.

wcGATE is $149, and it also supports
porting mail to/from Novell’s Message
Handling System (MHS) e-mail format.

CALLER GOODIES

T he new Wildcat! also offers some
caller goodies that may be well
received. Most dramatic was a GIF
Thumbnailer. This program allows you
to tag several GIF images. It will then
assemble a single screen displaying each
GIF in a small low-res version allowing
you some concept of what you may be
about to spend the next 10 minutes
downloading. The size varies depending
on the number tagged, down to quite
small.

The message editor is shaping up very
nicely. Full text search of the entire
message base is supported with
AND/OR/NOT logicals. The company
bailed on the B-TRIEVE concept and
went to a flat file messaging system
with some very fast search algorithms.
Searching may be a bit slower than
previous versions, but you can search
for more. And message tossing from
networks like USENET are much,
much faster.

Callers can now forward messages to
other callers with comments. And the
new editor features a built-in spelling
checker. We do hope this feature finds
wide use in the Wildcat! community...

Multilanguage support appears in this
version. And despite the LAN nature of
this beast, Mustang has made a serious
run at upgrading their chat function.
The new version supports 500 public
channels and 1000 “action words.”
Action words are shorthand macros
common to the system. You enter
something like /VOMIT and the system
issues something like “Dashing Warrior
Spews Stomach Contents on Winsome
Lass.” The sysop can define each of

26 Board watch -August 1994

The Sysop Choice: SupraFAXModem V32 bis

Inside or Out, now you can choose the hot-selling SupraFAXModem ™, Fall Back/Fail Forward technology lets the modem adjust to changing
technology that best fits your BBS. Either way, Supra can turn your BBS into line conditions. And Adaptive Answer* recognizes whether an incoming call

a communications powerhouse!

Supra’s faxmodems offer top-of-the line functionality
like 14,400 bps fax and data, compression (V.42bis & MNP
2-5), support for Class 1 & 2 fax commands, and
compatibility with Group 3 fax machines.

But SupraFAXModems don’t stop there. We’ve
enhanced the standard Rockwell modem technology. The
revolutionary status display on Supra’s external modems
makes it easy for you to monitor online activity. The
SupraSmart™ UART on the internal V.32bis faxmodem
significantly enhances the
potential for error-free
transmissions.

CALLER ID

is fax or data.

Supra corporation

MODEL

RETAIL PRICE

SYSOP PRICE

SupraFAXModem V.32bis external with Caller ID

$379-95

$149.95

SupraFAXModem V.32bis internal with Caller ID

$ 299.95

$129.95

The Caller ID* option can allow positive
identification of all callers without the normal tedious
logon sequence. Prevent unauthorized entry due to lost
or stolen accounts and passwords because the BBS can
know exactly who’s calling

And Supra offers qualified Sysops an “insider” price
on both internal and external faxmodems. Choose the
faxmodem that’s right for you and call Supra’s BBS
( 503 - 967 - 2444 ) or 1 - 800 - 727-8772 today for
more information.

* Adaptive Answer and Caller ID require software support. Caller ID also requires service from the local telephone company.

7101 Supra Drive S.W., Albany, OR 97321 USA • 503-967-2410 • Fax: 503-967-2401 • All trademarks belong to their respective companies.

these to be whatever they like. There is
also a built-in profanity filter.

For high-speed modem support, the
maximum serial port speed was
increased to 115.2 kpbs.

The most controversial element of
Wildcat is that all passwords in the
userlog are now encrypted. And there
is no way to decrypt them. The sysop
can’t tell what anyone’s password is and
there were howls of rage from the atten¬
dees at the conference over this. But
Jim Harrer and the crew were pretty
adamant about it. Once a password is
entered into the user database, it’s a
secret from EVERYBODY - even the
sysop.

The reasons given for this unpopular
move were ostensibly that in many
organizations the BBS is simply a node
on the LAN and if anyone can get in to
the user database and read passwords,
there is a security problem. The actual
reason probably goes beyond this.
Mustang itself has had a couple of
instances of employees leaving the firm,
and later dialing in as one of the
OTHER employees with their password
to erase hard drives and other mischief.
Actually, we’ve had the same thing
happen at Boardwatch. Unless you
want EVERYBODY to have to change
passwords every time an employee
leaves, it’s a bit of a problem.

The most common complaint is that
callers lose their passwords and call the
sysop to find out what it is. How can
they do that? Actually, we don’t think
it’s a problem. If a caller calls in and
wants to know what their password is,
the sysop can simply ask them what
they WANT it to be, and key it in about
as easily as look it up and tell it to
them. You can still CHANGE pass¬
words, but you can’t see what they are
after they are changed.

A final cunning little thing we noticed -
and have had problems with ourselves,
is duplicate caller entries. Human
names are just distinctive enough for
survival in a very local geographic area.
In the wider world of cyberspace, they
barely work at all and this is just
becoming apparent. The number of
“Michael Johnsons” in the typical BBS
user database - even for fairly local
small systems, can become astounding.
Of course, only the FIRST Michael
Johnson actually gets to be Michael
Johnson. The rest have to be M
Johnson and M. Johnson and
Mjohnsonl and Michael X. Johnson and
so forth. The Wildcat system now has a

caller identification number. And you
can all be Michael Johnson. If there is
more than one, the system displays all
of them, along with where they are from
and their user id. You can then pick
one - ostensibly the one that matches
the password you know. Alternatively,
you can simply logon with the user id.

Mustang Version 4.0 is $129 for the
single line version, $249 for a 10-user
version, $499 for a 250 user version.
Then they have their Multiline Plat¬
inum version which will allow you to
run up to 8 lines per PC using Digi-
board smart serial boards, and you can
LAN the PC’s together to serve up to
250 users - at $799. With the wcPRO,
wcGATE, wcCODE, and so forth, it has
all become pretty unbundled to the
point of confusion for some companies
that just want a BBS that does the
whole works. So Mustang has intro¬
duced what they call a BBS Suite at
$999 - all of it in one box. In this way,
the hobbyist can pick up what pieces
they need, as needed. But if you want
to avoid the 20 questions and resulting
65 answers to each, the BBS Suite
covers all the bases - and at $999 - a
pretty good discount from picking them
a piece at a time.

Version 4.0 represents a significant
change in direction for Wildcat! and a
major upgrade from previous versions.
Whatever you thought you knew about
Wildcat! is probably wrong at this point.
We think it’s moved this package,
always an easy install and very LAN
friendly, into the power user/system
designer class suitable for any serious
online application.

Oh...and anything you may have heard
about the babes in Fresno - true.
Mustang Software, Inc., PO Box 2264,
Bakersfield, CA 93303; (805)873-2500
voice; (805)873-2599 fax; (805)873-2550
BBS.

AOL & TNPC JOIN FORCES

T he National Parenting Center and
America On-Line have joined forces
in launching a service that features a
comprehensive library of parenting
advice and support. AOL members can
now access an extensive database of
hundreds of columns written by some of
the most respected names in the field of
child-care.

Categories range from pregnancy
through adolescence and address
subjects from toilet training tips and
better teenage communication, to

teething and tantrums. Another
feature of the new service is the
Parenting Forum where parents can
exchange ideas, or ask questions of the
expert panel of The National Parenting
Center. Additionally, each month
America On-Line will host a live discus¬
sion where members can join a question
and answer forum with individual
parenting experts such as Vicki Lansky,
Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D., or Alvin
Eden, MD.

The National Parenting Center which is
also noted for its consumer award
program, The Seal of Approval, is
featuring The Parent/Child Develop¬
ment Store, a shop at home service on¬
line where members can browse and
make purchases of some of the finest
child and parent related products on the
market today.

TNPC president David Katzner
explains, “We’re thrilled to be able to
bring our parenting support service to
the members of America On-Line. To
be able to reach so many people, directly
in their homes with the advice and
information they need helps us to
achieve our goal of supporting families
and promoting positive parenting.”

ZIFFNET PROGRAMMERS’
COOKBOOK

T7 iffNet Online Service Offers Cook-
CJbook to Raise Funds for Slain
Member’s Family

ZiffNet, the online information service
about personal computing, announced
in June availability of The ZiffNet
Cookbook: Recipes from the Digital
Diner: The cookbook was created to
raise funds for the family of David
Alsberg, a ZiffNet member who was
killed in December by a stray bullet
during a robbery in New York City.
ZiffNet and CompuServe members can
access the cookbook by typing
GO COOKBOOK.

The ZiffNet Cookbook was compiled by
ZiffNet staff members, headed by

28 Boardwatch - August 1994

Think Of ft As The Fast Lane On
The Information Superhighway.

Q modemPro for Windows by Mustang Software zooms past the
competition. With no roadblocks in sight. This feature-filled,
power-packed communications software makes it easy for Windows
users to dial into BBS systems. It’s the first program to support both
data and fax communications from a single Phonebook. With a modem
that supports adaptive answering, you can receive both fax and data
calls while in Host Mode, a limited-feature BBS program that lets you
set up your PC to receive incoming modem calls. You can also send a
fax directly from any Windows application using the QmodemPro for
Windows printer driver. It’s easy. It's all in one integrated package. And
it’s available now.

QmodemPro for Windows is the first Windows product to support
RIPscrip graphics, so you can plug into the thousands of BBSs offering
graphics and full mouse support online. It also has more than 30 of the
most popular terminal emulations, 10 built-in file transfer protocols
including Zmodem, CIS B+ and Kermit, plus up to 40 programmable
macro buttons. QmodemPro for Windows also lets you associate icons
to each entry in your dialing directory, so you can create a true
Windows Phonebook. Each Phonebook entry tracks up to 5 numbers,
and groups of entries can be saved and dialed.

With QmodemPro for Windows, file transfers are made easy with
features like drag-and-drop uploads from the Windows File Manager
and live .GIF file viewing during downloads. The built-in .GIF viewer
lets you zoom .GIF and .BMP files, or mark and copy portions of the
picture to the Windows clipboard. You can put the Windows multitasking
environment to work: use it to transfer files in the background while
you work in your word processor or spreadsheet applications, or get in
a few quick games of Solitaire. No other communications software
does Windows like QmodemPro.

QmodemPro’s new script language, SLIQ, gives you unparalleled
power, speed and flexibility. With the AutoLearn feature, you can let
QmodemPro record your scripts automatically without having to learn
how to program. SLIQ scripts are compiled for fast, secure operation,
plus we include a powerful script debugger and text editor.

QmodemPro for Windows also supports sound cards, so you can
play your favorite .WAV file automatically when you connect to a BBS,
and during other events like a successful fax transmission.

Whether you're a BBS beginner or a seasoned modem user, you’ll
find QmodemPro for Windows to be a flexible, easy-to-use communi¬
cations tool, with twice as many features as competitive products. And
at a better price: only $99 retail.

(DOS version also available)

If you want to get on the information
superhighway, don’t get stuck in the slow
lane. Move ahead fast with QmodemPro
for Windows by Mustang Software.

Available Now
At Software, Etc.,
CompUSA And
Finer Software
Retailers
Nationwide.

Call Today

800 - 807-2874

mustang Connecting The World In '94

SOFTWARE **

inc. Mustang Software, Inc. • 6200 Lake Ming Road • Bakersfield, CA 93306
805-873-2500 • FAX 805-873-2599 • BBS 805-873-2400

Katherine Prouty, editorial forums
manager, to gather funds for Alsberg’s
three-year-old son Mark, as Alsberg did
not have life insurance at the time of
his death. Ironically, just prior to his
death, Alsberg was involved in online
discussions where he passionately
argued for gun control.

“Alsberg was an active and vibrant
ZiffNet member,” said David Shnaider,
vice president and general manager of
ZiffNet. “The cookbook is an expres¬
sion of how the ZiffNet community
valued David’s thoughtful and
committed participation. We are
pleased that so many people
contributed.” Some industry notables
who contributed recipes include Eric
Hippeau, chairman of Ziff Communica¬
tions Company, Barry Berkov, executive
vice president of information services at
CompuServe, Bill Machrone, vice presi¬
dent, technology at Ziff-Davis
Publishing Company and Ed Belove,
vice president, software at Ziff-Davis
Interactive.

The illustrated cookbook contains 140
recipes contributed by many ZiffNet
members and Ziff-Davis Publishing
employees. Members were encouraged
to include anecdotes and reasons why
they contributed a recipe, resulting in a
variety of time-worn family favorites,
recipes from around the world and
creative originals. For example, kicking
off the Desserts section is a recipe for
oatmeal chocolate chip cookies,
including “coded” instructions for
programmers, such as “Tblsp
*rolled_oats = malloc(sizeof(Tblsp;” to
mean one tablespoon of rolled oats.

Recipes appear in the following cate¬
gories: Meats, Poultry, Seafood, Breads,
Casseroles, Souffles, Pasta, Vegetables,
Side dishes, Desserts, Breakfasts, Chili,
Soups/Salads/Sauces, Appetizers and
Dips, plus a ZiffNet exclusive recipe
section for extremely hard-working
professionals — dishes requiring only
goods from vending machines and mini¬
refrigerators. The section also includes
an authoritative guide to stocking mini-
refrigerators.

The ZiffNet Cookbook is available to
ZiffNet and CompuServe members in
Windows Help format and ASCII by
typing GO COOKBOOK. The cookbook
is offered as shareware and carries a
$5.00 registration fee if used. Under
the CompuServe Standard Pricing Plan,
downloading the WinHelp version of the
cookbook will cost about $1.00 at 9600
bps and about $2.00 at 2400 bps.
ZiffNet and CompuServe are donating

all connect-time and shareware
proceeds to the fund for Alsberg’s son.
ZiffNet encourages the distribution of
the ZiffNet Cookbook to local BBSs,
other online services and Internet sites.
Other contributions can be made by
writing to: “The David Alsberg Trust,”
Peter Alsberg, c/o James V. O’Gara,
Kelley Drye & Warren, 101 Park
Avenue, New York, NY 10178.

ZiffNet is a product of Ziff-Davis Inter¬
active, the leading publisher of elec¬
tronic information about computing.
Formed in 1991, Ziff-Davis Interactive
(ZDI) is a division of Ziff-Davis
Publishing, the leading publisher of
information about computers and
computing. The company’s publications
include PC Magazine, PC/Computing,
PC Week, Computer Shopper,
Computer Gaming World, MacWEEK,
MacUser, Windows Sources, the
recently announced Computer Life, and
the joint-venture with Disney Family
PC, as well as seven publications in
Europe.

ENHANCED FIRSTCLASS
CLIENT FOR NEWTON
MESSAGEPAD

B lack Labs, Inc. of Boulder, Colorado,
announced an enhanced version of
FirstClass Retriever, a Newton
MessagePadx client for the popular
FirstClass e-mail and conferencing
system from SoftArc Inc. of Scarbor¬
ough, Ontario, Canada.

FirstClass Retriever allows users to
automatically retrieve, read and reply to
mail from remote FirstClass servers
using a Newton MessagePad with either
internal or external modems, modem¬
emulating wireless transceivers or a
wireless local area network.

New features incorporated into
Retriever 1.1 include networking
support for operating Retriever over
Appletalk, the ability to browse folders
in the user’s mailbox, automatic retry
on connection busy, and new mail noti¬
fication.

FirstClass Retriever operates in two
modes: Connect and Xchange, corre¬
sponding to the two most frequently
used modes for electronic mail systems.
In Connect mode, the user can selec¬
tively read and respond to messages
while online with a FirstClass server.
Xchange mode is used to minimize
phone connect costs, allowing the user
to quickly download messages for later

review and upload messages created
offline in batch mode.

In Connect mode, the user logs on and
retrieves a message list by simply
tapping on the Connect button. Once
the message list appears on the screen,
the user simply taps on messages he
wants to download and view. While
viewing a message, the user can choose
to Delete it, Reply to it or Save it
permanently in his MessagePad. The
user can also download selected
messages,log off from FirstClass and
view these messages at a later time.

Xchange exchanges mail between the
Newton MessagePad and the host
system automatically. In Xchange
mode, the MessagePad is automatically
connected to the host system, all unread
or a preselected number of unread
messages (user definable) are automati¬
cally downloaded from the FirstClass
server and unsent mail destined for that
host system is automatically uploaded.
When downloading and uploading are
complete, the user is logged off the
FirstClass server.

Other features of FirstClass Retriever
include support for connections to
multiple FirstClass systems or the same
system from different locations and
support for off-line message creation.
When a new message is created off-line,
the user is asked to specify which First-
Class system the mail is destined for.
When an Xchange session occurs with
that FirstClass system, all unsent mail
destined for that FirstClass System will
automatically be sent.

More than 800,000 people around the
world use FirstClass for mixed-platform
network e-mail, conferencing and online
communication. More and more organi¬
zations are choosing FirstClass over
traditional e-mail products such as
Microsoft Mail, cc:Mail or even group-
ware such as Lotus Notes.

FirstClass Retriever is the first of a
series of software retrievers and
browsers for the MessagePad from
Black Labs. “By creating a series of
products targeted at different host
systems, Black Labs can give each
product the unique feel of the host
system to which it connects, provide
optimized and reliable operation for
that environment and price the product
economically. In addition, the memory
requirements are minimized allowing
use of the MessagePad with PCMCIA
modems,” said Doug Swartz, Black Labs
President. Watch for announcements of
MessagePad remote retrievers for

30 Boardwatch - August 1994

Business Beat

Full Text Searching ...

N eed to add powerful full text searching to your corporate
BBS? Cheetah is the solution!

Cheetah was designed by APDI, a leader in corporate BBS con¬
sulting. APDI listened to corporations, associations and government
agencies who need simple full text searching software to work with
their BBS.

The search features of Cheetah include:

★ Boolean ★ Phrase ★ Proximity

Most types of searches can be performed in a matter of seconds
even with gigabytes of text.

Cheetah was specifically designed for BBSs. The software keeps
track of users' time left on the BBS, mode settings, modem status
and even allows users to download their search results using any
compression software they choose.

Cheetah handles text and
images - newsletters,
magazines, even government
regulations!

C heetah is available in serial port, Fossil and Digiboard
versions and works out of the box on Novell Networks.
Cheetah comes with an unlimited user license per BBS.

NEW Cheetah 1.5 version now shipping
• Images, GIF files • Menu-driven maintenance program

• Document date support • Usage reports
• Sysop configurable menus • Unlimited hit lists
• Auto open databases • Search multiple databases

Cheetah 1.0 can be purchased at 50% off while supplies last.

So if you work for a corporation, association or government and
run a BBS, or just have the task of building one, call APDI
at 1-800-785-APDI (1-800-785-2734) and find out more about
Cheetah’s ability to give your users what they need.

SEE US AT:

ONE BBSCON

ATLANTA

AUGUST 17-21,1994

BOOTH

#223

Mark Burnett at APDI's BBS Service Bureau.

"The BBS Service Bureau"

C ompanies looking for a serious BBS company to provide
a wide range of services are choosing APDI. APDI is devoted
to providing professional BBS services to corporations, as¬
sociations and government agencies throughout the United States.

Typical APDI clients are organizations that need turnkey BBS
solutions or advanced technical support. APDI provides installa¬
tion and support for WILDCAT!, GALACTICOMM, PC
BOARD, TBBS, and SEARCHLIGHT. APDI is a Certified
Mustang Software Integrator (CMSI) and a Galacticomm, Ambas¬
sador Dealer.

Most of APDI's corporate customers find it advantageous to let
APDI run the BBS for them at APDI's location. APDI provides all
equipment (like the BBS center shown above) and handles all
technical support and navigation issues on your BBS. APDI’s fiber¬
optic cabling ensures crystal clear connections and communications
to your bulletin board system.

Many businesses wish to add a database to their BBS but find
it difficult to locate programmers with the skills to assist them. APDI
has a skilled database development staff and is on the FoxPro and
Paradox development teams.

Now APDI can put your BBS on:

• Internet • X25 Packet Switching Network

Call and find out why so many of the largest corporations in the
world dial into an APDI BBS every day!

Application Programming & Development, Inc.
6805 Coolridge Drive, 2nd Floor
Camp Springs, MD 20748

p E Bl e,l|CE Q*

1-800-785-APDI

(301) 449-1400 - Voice • (301) 449-6100 - BBS

he king of the jungle has done it again:

Wildcat! 4 by Mustang Software. By
listening to you, our valued customers,

Wildcat! has become The World’s Most
Popular BBS Software? Now, we’ve given

Wildcat! even more to roar about with more than
250 new features and enhancements. See for
yourself why Wildcat! has become the BBS
product everyone’s talking about. And leam
about the new features that our competitors
won’t have for months to come.

Powerful NJew Features

GIF Thumbnailer. Before downloading multiple .GIF files, your
callers can download a thumbnail preview, which allows them

to get a true idea of what the
.GIFs contain without relying
on the description.

Online Spell Checker. Your
callers will appreciate the
ability to spell check theft-
text before saving theft-
message. We’ve also added
search and replace, block cut
and paste, and a host of
other new word processing features, which makes this the
most powerful online full screen editor in the industry.

Online Scrollback and Capture. Now, Wildcat! Sysops can scroll
back through the user’s activity while they’re online, without
interrupting the caller. You can also him on a screen capture
file, which will record the entire session to disk.

Powerful and Fun Chat System. Your callers
will enjoy Wildcati’s entirely new Chat
system, which features public and private
channels, sysop-definable action words,
and even moderated channels. We’ve also
added goodies like multilingual support,
profanity filter, alias names, squelching,
and a whole lot more.

PRQWLINJG

Online Jungle.

Tame Wildcat! to Your Specific Needs. Wildcat! Sysops will be
able to customize Wildcat! by running any wcCODE
application. Available as an option, wcCODE is our new
Custom Online Development Engine that’s an easy to use,
Basic-like programming language that gives you access to
Wildcati’s internal structures and commands. These applications
run directly from Wildcat! 4 without using a Door interface.

Free Form Menu
Structure. For the
first time, Sysops
can create
hundreds of menus
and place any
Wildcat! feature
or wcCODE

application on any menu, in any order. You can create simple,
time-saving shortcuts like Read All Un-Read Personal Mail as one
menu choice or Download ALLFILES.ZIP right from the main
menu. And making these menus is a breeze with our new
MAKEMENU utility, included with every Wildcat! 4.

Multiple Language Support. BBSs have become global, and
Sysops need to support multiple languages. You can now
create a variety of language files from which callers can select
prior to login. Even Chat has multilingual action words so you
don’t ignore your international callers.

Ready to go hunting?

With its new technology features and enhancements, Wildcat! 4
outpaces the competition and moves easily into the new world
of global communications. It’s available in single and multi-line
configurations. And with our popular add-on products like

wcCODE, our Custom Online Development
Engine; wcPRO Utilities, a powerful statistical
and analytical package; and wcGATE, our
Internet and MHS Gateway, all written and
supported directly by Mustang Software, you
see feature-for-feature that Wildcat! 4 is the
best value in the BBS market. And the only
way to navigate through the online jungle.
Cage a new Wildcat! 4 today.

Intelligent Enhancements

1 Expanded File & Message Conferences. Wildcat! 4
supports up to 32,760 File and Message Conferences,
which gives you room to grow.

1 Super-Fast Message Databases. With speedy, new
databases, moving massive amounts of messages in
and out of Wildcat! has never been faster. Let your
BBS spend more time handling calls and less time
tossing mail.

1 Expanded RIP Support. Customize any Wildcat! prompt
with your own personal RIP screen or use our default
RIP screens included with the program.

1 Automatically import your file descriptions. Wildcat! 4
supports FILE_ID.DIZ and DESC.SDI, saving you and
your callers time while maintaining better descriptions.

J Flexible Modem Setup. Our improved wcMODEM
utility makes modem setup a breeze. Supports all v.FC,
v.34, v.32 terbo with intelligence to handle any new
modem which appears on the market in the future.

> Improved Message Handling For Internet.

64KB messages give you over 800 lines of text. We’ve
also expanded our message headers to support up to
70 characters for those long Internet addresses.

1 Duplicate Name Support. Your BBS can now handle
common caller names like Jim Smith and allows you to
have common files like PKUNZIP in multiple file areas.

1 Local Sysop Node Support. Now you can perform
maintenance while callers are on-line, even in our
Single Line version.

800 - 807-2874

Available Now At Software, Etc.,
CompUSA And Finer Software
Retailers Nationwide.

Connecting The World In '94

6200 Lake Ming Road • Bakersfield, CA 93306
805-873-2500 • FAX 805-873-2599 • BBS 805-873-2400

MUSTANG
SOFTWARE

inc. Mustang Software, Inc.

Compuservex and Unixx environments
coming soon from Black Labs.
FirstClass Retriever is priced at $69
retail and is shipping now. All
purchasers of Retriever 1.0 will auto¬
matically be upgraded to 1.1 free of
charge. A subsequent version, First-
Class Retriever + will be released within
60 days and will offer all the features of
FirstClass Retriever plus the ability to
navigate FirstClass conferences. First-
Class Retriever + will retail for $99.
Until FirstClass Retriever-I- is shipped,
all FirstClass Retriever purchasers can
purchase a Retriever+ upgrade for $20.
Black Labs, Inc., 3613 Sunshine
Canyon, Boulder, CO 80302; (303)938-
8580 voice; (303)938-8546 fax; Black-
labs@aol.com

ITU V.34 MODEM
STANDARD FOR 28.8 KBPS
APPROVED

T :he long awaited V.34 modem stan¬
dard for 28.8 kbps links was
formally approved June 9 at a meeting
of the International Telecommunica¬
tions Union Study Group 14 in Geneva
Switzerland.

According to Dale Walsh, U.S. Robotics
vice president of advanced development
and a member of the committee, the
June meeting was mostly a formality.
“All the technical issues were worked
out last December after the meeting in
Dublin. The rapporteur’s group
meeting in Orlando was to firm up the
actual text of the specification, and
explain some elements that needed
further explaining.”

About 30 administrations were repre¬
sented at Geneva. A unanimous vote
was necessary to put the V.34 adoption
on the “accelerated” approval path.
Other members have 90 days to
comment and a 70% majority is needed
to ensure adoption. But V.34, for all
intents and purposes, has been
approved.

The entire process for V.34 took nearly
three years. In the interim, a number
of “early” versions of modems with
many of the features of V.34 were
produced. The most successful was the
Hayes/Rockwell V.Fast Class or V.FC
modems. Although very similar in tech¬
nology to V.34, they will NOT be
signalling compatible with V.34. The
final V.34 included a 4-dimensional 64-
state trellis coding not used in V.FC, a
V.8 start-up sequence said to ensure
V.34 startup quickly, and some minor

changes in the way rate renegotiation
occurred.

The result, inevitably, will be a
scramble to upgrade V.FC modems to
V.34. A number of vendors had fore¬
seen this an several FLASHROM
upgrade schemes have been devised for
vendors such as Supra, U.S. Robotics,
and more. But even these software
upgrades may take a couple of months
to produce.

LEFT HANDED KEYBOARD

T jhe left-handed monkey wrench joke
has finally come full circle. Christo¬
pher D. Licata, a New Jersey CPA, has
invented a left handed computer
keyboard. We can’t imagine how the
arrangement of keys would make any
difference to southpaws, but he’s done
it. The numeric keypad and cursor keys
are placed to the left of the normal
QWERTY key layout. Invention World
Corporation, 22 Walter Street, Pearl
River, NY 10965; (914)627-3500 voice;
(914)735-7872 fax.

COMPUSERVE GATEWAY
FOR MICROSOFT MAIL

U sers of Microsoft Mail can now port
e-mail to the CompuServe online
service, and from there to anywhere via
Internet, using the MS Mail Driver. MS
Mail Driver effectively turns Microsoft
Mail into a mail front-end for
CompuServe. And all file attach¬
ments/multimedia content makes the
trip just fine, as long as the recipient on
the other end also uses compatible soft¬
ware. The MS Mail Driver is available
for download from CompuServe at a $5
fee - GO CISSOFT.

HAYES TO ENTER VIDEO
CONFERENCING MARKET

H ayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.,
announced in late June plans to
deliver a personal videoconferencing
product to PC users that will leverage
high speed modem or ISDN communica¬
tions technology to deliver desktop
quality video applications.

In order to increase Hayes’ technology
base in videoconferencing, the company
has formed a business alliance with
Workstation Technologies Inc., devel¬
opers of the first color videoconfer¬
encing solution to operate over a single
standard telephone line.

“High-speed communications is driving
the increasing number of multimedia
applications for PCs and allowing them
to flourish,” Hayes President Dennis C.
Hayes said. “We’ve chosen to work with
WTI because desktop videoconferencing
will be a major contributor to the
expansion of this part of the market and
they are experienced in video compres¬
sion and videoconferencing technolo¬
gies. Our plan is to combine WTI’s tech¬
nology base with Hayes strengths in
high-speed communications and distrib¬
ution management to establish a strong
presence in the videoconferencing
market.”

“The Hayes/WTI partnership will
produce video communication solutions
that are accessible to anyone with a
telephone and desktop computer,” said
Chris Miner, President of WTI. “For the
first time, users will be able to conduct
real time video conferences that inte¬
grate video and audio capabilities on a
standard telephone line.”

Hayes will first deliver a personal,
point-to-point videoconferencing
product that operates over standard
analog telephone lines, and will later
support ISDN. Hayes Microcomputer
Products, Inc., PO Box 105203, Atlanta,
GA 30348; (404)840-9200 voice;
(404)441-1213 fax; 800-USHAYES BBS.

THE STRANGE TALE OF
DLX BBS SOFTWARE

O ur fascination with the online
genre does not revolve entirely
around the interesting things you can
do with a modem - however varied and
useful. The story of Boardwatch is the
tale of “watching” an industry in the
throes of birth. The task of computer
communications is as yet unfinished.
We are hacking at dirt clods with sticks
and regaling each other with heady
tales of future farming. New hardware
devices, new software tools for commu¬
nications, and new paradigms of what
communicating globally on a many-to-
many basis really means provides an
unfolding drama with winners, losers,
fortunes made and lost, men with
vision, and men with none. A single
conversation between two people can
alter the course of this industry forever,
and the distance between the kitchen
table entrepreneur who builds the
multi-million-dollar corporation and the
one who doesn’t can often be measured
in the space of a passing thought.

Richard Gillman works for Microsoft

34 Boardwatch - August 1994

Puzzled about On-line Databases?

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Wildcat! BBS Single Line.$99

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Wildcat BBS IM, Multi-Port (up to 250 Users).$609

Wildcat! Pro! Series Utilities.$89

Game Pack $49 value, (ordered w/Wildcat!).$15

DesqView386 Multi-tasking w/QEMM.$110

4 Port Serial Card with 16550 UARTs.$115

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BBS Technologies

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The MajorBBS, v.6.2,2-line.$189

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MajorBBS Add-on Modules.CALL

RipPaint.$169

TBBS2.2m 2-line.$199

TBBS 2.2m & TDBS1.2m 2-line.$470

TBBS 2.2m 16-line.$599

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SYSOM 1.1.$88

TIMS 1.1. $118

Call our BBS 209-498-6533 for product information
and to view or download our complete catalog!

Digiboards, Boca, CD Disks, GTek.CALL

Digiboard PC/8 with 16550’s.$470

Night Owl 12 - Shareware CD Disk.$38

Remote Power ON/OFF.$149

Q-Modem Pro for Windows.$95

Visa, MasterCard & AmericanExpress Accepted

Boardwatch - August 1994 35

MMB TEAMate UNIX®

Internet Information Server

Now Gopher & Mosaic!

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FIVE Protocols in ONE Server.

• Bulletin Board access
via telnet and dialup or with a
TEAMate GUI client for
Windows, Mac and UNIX.

Gopher

BBS

• use your TEAMate
server to serve HTML data
for Mosaic (HTTP) clients

• any Gopher client can
now access your server

• a mailing list function so new information from

the server can be automatically distributed to specified users via

electronic mail

TEAMate's client/server design moves the user interface to
the local workstation for increased performance. GUI client
software conforming to the established standards for
Windows 3.1, Macintosh and UNIX workstations
Lists makes it easy for your users
to get started fast.
Server software is
available for HP-UX, IBM
RS/6000, SUN and SCO. All
servers support terminal
emulation and client
access via modem
and TCP/IP.

Commercial

Information

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If you need a
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information server
that is Internet
compatible, has all
Bulletin Board

functions including full text indexing and user
access controls and provides a commercial alterna¬
tive for Gopher and World Wide Web servers;

take a look at TEAMate.

• support for an
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update protocol so your
users never have to log
in if they don’t
want to

MMB TEAMate

Call (800) 832-6022 or (310) 318-1322 Fax (310) 318-2162 E-Mail bob@teamate.mmb.com MMB Development Corporation,

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STOP losing time and money setting up and maintaining your
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We work with many excellent programmers. Tom Faulkner,

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custom programming and has done a considerable amount of work
for federal government agencies. Based in North Carolina, Tom has
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800-492-8227 FAX
508-429-8385 BBS

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One Regency Drive
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□

Unsure of who can best help you with your needs? Call GW Associates and we’ll help you determine who can
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ndBBi

Announcing MultiBase Online

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Online demonstrations are available by appointment.
Telephone today for more information.

Voice (310) 477-0593 Fax (310) 477-9475

THE BUSINESS BBS

2531 Sawtelle Blvd., Suite 109, Los Angeles, CA 90064-3163

Boardwatch - August 1994 37

Corporation and has for a number of
years. This has made him a little
goosey about appearing to be in the
software business for obvious reasons.
But he was fascinated with the BBS
concept and he wrote a multiline BBS
software package in Pascal he termed
DLX. DLX allowed callers to talk to
each other in real time by typing
messages to the screen and was one of
the early “chat” conferencing systems.
It also featured a detailed questionnaire
new callers were required to complete.
As a result, anyone you might meet
online also had a “profile” on the
system you could examine.

The software gained quite a following
on the West Coast and DLX systems
seemed to spring from the sand. One
operator in Portland was a quadraplegic
that ran a dozen lines with a stick in his
mouth. Many DLX operators became
quite attached to the program. In
recent years, it has suffered from a limi¬
tation of 32 lines per PC, and lack of
such niceties as the Zmodem file
transfer protocol. But a faithful
following of DLX operators remains,
with some operating multiple bulletin
boards to get around the 32 line limit,
and focusing on the chat/social aspects
of the BBS where file transfer protocols
are less significant.

The Online Store was an early experi¬
ment in selling computer hardware and
software via a BBS. Gillman, who
didn’t really want a company and was
nagged by the constant support ques¬
tions surrounding DLX, made arrange¬
ments with the Online Store whereby
they would sell the software and
support it - remitting a percentage of
sales to Gillman. Within months,
Online Store declared bankruptcy for
entirely unrelated reasons - leaving
DLX up in the air.

Fred Gernand ran a popular chat
system titled Baudtown using DLX. He
offered to take over sales and support of
DLX. Again within months, Gernand
himself succumbed to a brain tumor.
After his death, his wife Linda
continued to sell and support the
package and operate the Baudtown BBS
- and does to the current time.

In a very surprising move on March 6 of
this year, Gillman released the source
code to DLX to the public domain.“I
have decided to stop selling DLX, to
abandon my copyright to it, and to
make DLX a freeware, public domain
program. There is no longer any charge
whatsoever to use DLX. You may make
as many copies as you like and you may
redistribute them however you wish. I’d
like to see Sysops add the
DLX70BBS.ZIP file to their libraries, so

that it can become more widely distrib¬
uted,” said Gillman in a text file accom¬
panying the release. “I am taking this
action because I want to see social
BBS’s more widely used. Also, I would
like to see them continue to evolve. I no
longer have the time to do this work,
and yet I don’t want to see DLX die.
Squeezing the last dime out of DLX as a
commercial program is not that impor¬
tant to me.” Gillman went on to
encourage others to use the source code
to develop their own products. “You are
free to use this source code for any
purpose. You may modify it and make
your own BBS program, and even copy¬
right and sell your modified version.”

The release, heralded widely as the
death of DLX, may have actually given
the program new life. Jeffrey
Thompson operates two 32-line DLX
bulletin boards in Seattle.
Chat!Chat!Chat! was actually originally
started by Shelly Gillman, Richard Gill-
man’s wife. But Thompson bought it
from her about 18 months ago and
today claims 4200 callers are classified
as active users and the system receives
about 2000 calls daily at (206)527-2428.
He also runs a second 32-line DLX
system titled 28 Barbary Lane at
(206)525-2828 that he’s operated for
about six years. Callers to these
systems pay $10 per month or $99 per
year for access, although much of the
system is free to anyone.

By day, Thompson is a computer oper¬
ator at Attachmate, a Belleview
company that produces PC-Mainframe
terminal emulation products. But he’s
almost fanatically devoted to DLX and
has set up a two-line product support
BBS for DLX at (206)525-0995 where
you can download the BBS, the source
code, and a number of enhancements
and add-ons done by others.

Additionally, it would seem develop¬
ment may be ongoing. Two program¬
mers, Jason Quinn and Lester Waters
are already working on what they call
Super-DLX. According to Thompson,
Super-DLX will support more lines, at
least 48 and perhaps 64 lines and will
add support for the Zmodem file
transfer protocol. They expect it to be
ready by September and have character¬
ized pricing as “moderate - around
$ 200 .”

Richard Gillman, Inner Loop Software,

rag@hebron.connected.com

Jeffrey Thompson, DLX Support BBS,
PO Box 25104, Seattle, WA 98125;

( 206 ) 527-1964 voice; ( 206 ) 524-2905 fax;
( 206 ) 525-0995 BBS.

A SAMPLING OF DLX

BULLETIN BOARDS

28 Barbary Lane

206-525-2828

All Adult Meeting Place

206-635-0763

Bubba’s Place

206-854-0896

Bull Sessions

206-271-7772

Chat! Chat! Chat!

206-527-2428

Der Schloss

206-324-2121

Forbidden Pleasures

206-789-9698

Heat of the Night Main

206-481-3451

Heat of the Night South

206-772-6864

The Mall

206-935-6255

Night Moves

206-839-4306

System Support

206-525-0995

Club Fresno

209-498-8150

The Motherboard

213-650-0519

USCBBS

213-743-5000

US Pompeii

213-878-2801

First Time BBS

214-231-5250

Philadelphia Court

215-568-0356

Modem Boy

310-659-7000

After the Bars

312-262-3626

The Zoo

312-907-1831

Offworld

314-580-0164

Affinity

314-771-1860

Adult Information Exchange

407-451-1984

The Dating Tree

408-946-1431

California Connexion Partyline

415-927-2739

The Heartbeat of Portland

503-236-4945

Interactions

510-832-0560

SBBS/Tucson

602-888-2290

The Alternate Link

617-455-8154

Christ, She’s At It Again

619-264-8412

San Diego Connection (Adult)

619-584-8456

San Diego Connection (Adult)

619-584-0470

Fantasy Party line

713-596-7101

Waveline

714-563-9421

N Y Information Exchange

718-353-1231

The Inner Circle

813-455-8449

The Dive Locker

805-522-5829

Delos

818-242-2365

Talk Channel

818-243-1076

Athlete’s Bench

818-247-2282

KBBS Bistro

818-507-1365

The Beeline

818-752-1714

Club Playhouse

818-781-7529

The Board With No Name

818-785-3340

Modem Butterfly

818-842-3322

Baud Town

818-893-0340

Back Alley

818-893-7600

Star Chat

818-954-0790

KBBS

818-994-0442

38 Boardwatch - August 1994

Ml Burnt ft Hi

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h The World

WMnut Paying

JUtndonfc

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EXEC-PC

2105 S. 170th Street New Berlin, Wl 53151 Voice: 4 1 4.7 89.4200

THE BUSINESS WEEK $ U I D E TO

Global Investments

usim Electronic tools

Bobeh't Schwab a < it

THE BUSINESS WEEK
GUIDE TO GLOBAL
INVESTMENTS USING
ELECTRONIC TOOLS

T his is a deceptive book. Most such
titles usually lead to some drivel
purported to make “computers easy for
the rest of us” - though generally devoid
of any useful information. The Business
Week Guide to Global Investments
Using Electronic Tools, by Robert
Schwabach, is a startlingly good treat¬
ment of online investing. Schwabach is
an experienced writer with more than
15 years with The Philadelphia
Enquirer and The Chicago Tribune, a
weekly syndicated computer column for
the past 12 years, and he’s the author of
The Dow Jones Guide to Investment
Software. It shows all the way through.

The book is designed for investors, obvi¬
ously, and tackles three tough items in
449 pages. First, it gives a thoroughly
knowledgeable overview of online
services for investors, covering the
vagaries, joys, and sins of CompuServe,
Prodigy, America Online, Dow Jones
News Retrieval, GEnie, Delphi, and
even a few notable bulletin boards.

Second, in
Around the
World in 80
Markets, it actu¬
ally covers
mutual funds
and some equi¬
ties in Mexico,
Latin America,
China, the
Philippines,
Japan, Korea
and dozens of
other countries -
an exotic tour
quite beyond the
usual U.S.
NASDAQ beat.

Finally, the book
includes and
describes demo
versions of three
excellent soft¬
ware programs:
Metastock SE,
Windows on Wall
Street Limited
Edition, and
Telescan
Analyzer. There
is more than a
little bit of a
technical analysis bent toward this
investor view of the world.

We found a fascinating description of
Pisces, a Chicago bulletin board at
(312)281 -6046. Pisces is home to one of
the largest MetaStock user groups and
provides tons of stock data in MetaS¬
tock format - zipped and downloadable
at 28.8 kbps. The Free Financial
Network in New York at (212)752-8660
also caught our eye. They give you
30,000 days worth of historical quotes
for free (about a year’s worth of histor¬
ical data on 90 stocks or so.) Finally,
AAII, The American Association of Indi¬
vidual Investors in Chicago at (312)280-
8565 actually maintains a list of about
60 financial bulletin boards.

The software with the book is a little
disturbing. The programs look to be
quite good and the book does an excel¬
lent job of describing how to use them,
complete with some extensive screen
captures of charts and graphs and how
to generate them. But they represent a
disturbing trend. At one time, several
software programs came out with
books. John Dvorak rather fathered
the concept of fat books with disks.
Initially, they found shareware titles
and talked the authors into letting
them include fully registered versions
with the books.

Later, a number of publishers and
authors gradually evolved this concept
into the practice of including the
“shareware” version that you could
register. More recently, this has
evolved into just including thoroughly
crippled “demo” versions of programs.
The problem is the software is promi¬
nently touted on the cover as being
“included” and disclaimers that you
don’t really get the software are
becoming more and more fine print in
nature. At what point does it become
fraud? In this book it probably does.
They refer to them as “customized”
versions worth hundreds of dollars and
all yours with the book. They are badly
crippled demos.

Still, we’re charmed by Schwabach’s
turn of a phrase. This could easily be a
useful but dry book. Instead, it is
riddled with titles that don’t really fit,
but sure feel good - Thirty Things You
Can Do With Common Chemicals
Found in the Kitchen; The Brotherhood
of Nations and Other Fantasies; Up
With Ordinaries; Sub Sighted.Sank
Same; and so on.

This book is thoroughly readable. We
found a discussion of the difference
between bonds and equities quite basic,
but still just enchanting. And surpris¬
ingly, the tome really introduced us to
some fascinating overseas investment
knowledge we just wouldn’t have found
elsewhere. It describes at length some
emerging technology funds that invest
in telecommunications installations in
third-world countries. Many of these
countries are leapfrogging the entire
wire-stringing century and installing
quite advanced and largish cellular
networks and satellite ground stations
to get into communication with the
world. And there are several funds that
invest exclusively, and apparently some¬
what profitably in this area. And the
book even lists some 400 American
Depository Receipts representing over¬
seas stocks - but readily tradeable here
in the U.S.

If you have an interest in overseas
investment, technical analysis and
investment stock software, or online
investment services, you don’t want to
miss this book. And despite the essen¬
tially fraudulent software scam, the
three programs included ARE pretty
fascinating if you haven’t seen them
elsewhere. Published by Osborne/
McGraw-Hill at $39.95; ISBN 0-07-
882055-3; 2600 Tenth Street, Berkeley,
CA 94710; 800-227-0900 orders;
(510)549-6600 voice; (510)549-6603 fax.

40 Boardwatch - August 1994

iblll CD-ROM DISCI

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Designed to Help You Obtain Maximum Performance from Your Computer and Installed CD-ROM Drive! CD-STONE Measures
Throughput as well as Access Time in a Reliable and Consistent Manner for a Meaningful Real-World Benchmark for CD
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Everything Fun and Interesting That Absolutely No One Wants You To Know About!
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ames™

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Our2nd. Mega Games Contains PC
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‘Wvfe.‘PrOofLabels fa Discs are BBS Realty! with MegaDoor/MepTeminal/Flles.bbs - X * A with Flles.bte

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Limit of 10 Per Customer

THE PROFIT GROUP, 824 E. Ft. Lowell Rd., Tucson, AZ 85713
Dealer Info. (602) 770-0000 - FAX Orders (602) 770-0005

The prices listed above do notinolude shipping and handling. Special shipping & shipping to foreign countries is available.

I MasterCard I

CREDIT CARD AND C.O.D. ORDERS ONLY! CALL TOLL FREE

1 - 800-8437990

M To Mention Expensive!

SoftModem users don’t experience the pain and expense of
upgrading their modems. That’s the value of SoftModem Technology.

Tired of ripping your PC apart every time there is a change in modem
standards or performance improvement? Well maybe its time you tried a
Connection Series SoftModem from Digicom Systems? Our exclusive SoftModem
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simply inserting a new diskette or dialing into our BBS (bulletin board service) to
update to the latest technology.

Increasing the modem’s speed from 9600 to 14,000 to 19,200 bps, or adding fax
and voice capabilities to a reprogrammable DSP (digital signal processing) based
modem is both easy and inexpensive! For information about the benefits of
SoftModem Technology and our Connection Series modems. Call 1-800-833-8900.

> ASI.

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INGRAM

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TECHNOLOGY

188 Topaz Steet
Milpitas, California 95035

(408) 262-1277

The Major BBS with Credit Card add-on modules by
DataSafe Publications let you create the successful,
profitable BBS you always envisioned!

VISA

flccept these Major Credit Cards
Online! Approved or Declined
Automatically, 24Hrs/Day

experience

The Major BBS

Special LIMITED TIME* Offer!

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"Experience The Major BBS" for the smallest
investment ever!! This is a limited time offer, so
don’t hesitate - get your order in today! Plus,
we discount all Galacticomm products!

Version 6.21 - 2 User
ONLY!!

Omni-Mall w/ RIP Support! omni-Mali

$249

Omni-Mall

Custoner Heoifttry :

Enter a Defter tnent

: Help Using Onni-ftall i

KeyWortl Search ;

The first end-to-end shopping mall for The Major BBS. Performs file
distribution of data products such as software, data base information
and valuable text files. Email receipts and orders Faxed to store
managers. Works with the POS Dial module for automatic online credit
card verification.

VisaMan™ v2.0

$149

The premier subscription module for The Major BBS. Works on hourly &
subscription based systems. Performs automatic account class switching,
credit card checking using MOD 10 and credit/day posting. Designed to work
with the POS Dial module for automatic online credit card verification.

Point-of-Sate Dial

$250

Global Power

$49

Global Power sets the NEW standard In global command modules.
Sysop commands include class switching, key assignment, credit
posting and more. User options include password changes,
teleconference entrance/exit message changes and Global Graphics(TM)
to other users.

AutoRate

$99

The POS Dial module is designed to interface with VisaMan and
Omni-Mall to perform automatic online credit card approval or
declination, 24 hrs a day. Never worry about manual processing of your
credit cards sales again.

Professional Dev loper's Group

r 11 DataSafe is a member of the Professional Developer’s
FDG S Group (PDG). PDG consists of a group of software
VJmSS !?jff developer's dedicated to providing the finest products
possible for The Major BBS. When you buy from a
PDG member you can count on:

AutoRate is a credit surcharge utility that allows you to vary credit
usage rates based on channel group, day of week, and time of day.
Ideal for systems using X.25 leased lines, surcharging high speed
modem lines or discounting during off peak hours.

• 30 Day Money Back Guarantee

• Prompt Shipping of all Orders

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•Quality Products
•Response to Bug Reports
• "One-Stop" Shopping

Sounds GREAT!

' But how do I accept
L credit cards on my
own BBS 7

Teleflora CreditLine

As a member we resell the following PDG member products.

DataSafe High Velocity Sirius

Publications. Inc. Software, Inc. Software

In order to accept credit cards on your BBS
you will need to secure a merchant account.
Many banks and merchant account vendors
don’t understand BBSs and how they operate. They
either refuse merchant accounts to BBS operators or
charge high rates for their services. Teleflora on
the other hand knows BBSs and wants your business.
As a representative for Teleflora. DataSafe can help you
secure a merchant account. Give us a call today for a
Tcleflora application.

ADP Phone Lister
AutoRate
BBS Lister
FOURmation
Global Power
HelpMan
NovaTrek
Omni-Mall
POS Dial Module
POS Dev Kit
Super Hangman
VisaMan v2.0

AMS DOS Shell
Chat on Demand
Happy Birthday
Line Monitor
Match Maker
Remote Console

Online
Employment
Service

Source Code available for most of these modules.
Please call us for current pricing and product info.

Auto Validator
Crossroads
Form Editor
Global Destruction
HVS Utilities
Major Goose
The Newsroom
Sysop Notepad
Text File Editor

ataSafc pobox16032

■ i- i filbuquerquc.NM

ublications. Inc sn»won

505-294-4980 Voice
505-294-1575 BBS

DATAMAX/SATALINK CONNECTION BBS

Access Telephone
Numbers in 350 Cities
Call 800/521*2733 for the local
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V.32bis 14.4 215/443-7390 • HST/DS 215/443-5830

Telnet via Internet: dsc.voicenet.com • ISDN Access Available

Live Internet feed with FTP
and Telnet via T1

Full Usenet feed with 4,000+

1,000 International mail
conferences from: (Link, Rime,
FidoNet, SmartNet, TrekNet,
Annex & Internet E-mail

* Hot Adult BBS action with
original GIFS, textfiies,
massive archive collection,
game doors & sizzling
network mail from ThrobNet,
AdultLinks, AdultNet &
AfterDark

1 Huge diverse 10 gigabyte file

from the Internet, 30 file
distribution networks, original
postings & ASP files

Option Module for TBBS

To Order:

Boardwatch Magazine
8500 W. Bowles Ave, Suite 210
Littleton, CO 80123

(303) 973-6038 Voice (303) 973-4222 Data
(303) 973-973-3731 Fax y

Local access from over 800 cities!
Live, uncensored group and private
Over 20,000 "X" and "G" rated files
Lively public forums!

Online matchmaker database!

AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!

For your local access number, info & signup, call:

Set modem to 8/N/l You rc | or older.

Voice assist-

Tlw Smarts Connection Mxi Can Mato

PC/4.....$305.00

PC/4 w/16550's.$355.00

PC/4e .. $475.00

PC/4 Cable.$39.00

PC/8.$395.00

PC/8 w/16550's. $470.00

PC/8e. $495.00

PC/8i.$845.00

PC/8 Cable. $70.00

PC/16.$925.00

PC/16 w/16550's.$1020.00

PC/16e... $945.00

PC/16i... $1270.00

RJ45 cable included on PC/16 boards!
RJ45 to DB25 cables ..ea $15.00

This Month's Special

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(“Combo Pack” includes one PC/8i, one PC/8 DB25
cable kit, and free UPS ground shipping.)

To Order, Call:

Th€ INDEX System™

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Sale prices expire 8/31/94. Some restrictions apply.

44 Boardwatch - August 1994

Could Introduce The Industry’s

tgf§'

You know what you need: a multi-user system with
LAN connectivity as well as dial-in access, robust
database management. E-mail gateways, fax-on-
demand services, and a programmable RIP graphical
user interface. And here it is: the Wildcat! BBS Suite™
from Mustang Software.

Think of the control and convenience at your fingertips. Think of
the time and money you’ll save. Think how productive your company will be
when you implement the most powerful BBS package in the industry.

For only $999, you get everything you need to move your corporate
environment into a new world of online communications with Wildcat!,

The Worlds Most Popular BBS Software™. The BBS Suite includes our
top-of-the-line Wildcat! MultiLine Platinum BBS, wcPRO Utilities package,
wcGATE Internet/MHS mail gateway, and wcCODE Custom Online
Development Engine. All in one easy-to-use integrated package. And only an
industry leader like Mustang Software could bring it to you.

The wcPRO Utilities provide you with flexible user, message and file
database power. You can create custom reports with more than 20 pages of
online statistics, develop command line macros for nighdy batch processing, and
export BBS data into other formats for your other applications. Our relational
database handling makes managing your BBS callers, files and messages quick
and easy. The wcPRO Utilities package also includes our fax-on-demand processor,
wcFAX, so your customers or other outside sales people can request data online
and receive product literature, forms and other documents via their fax.

A sophisticated messaging gateway, wcGATE, enables your callers to send
and receive Internet E-Mail and news right from your BBS without having to
know a single Internet command. Built-in support for satellite connections
means your staff can have a constant flow of Internet information at their
fingertips. wcGATE also allows you to transfer BBS messages to your company’s
favorite MHS compatible E-Mail package. Outside salespeople and remote
offices can leave messages on the BBS and have them directed to the appropriate
mail box on your LAN using Novell’s Message Handling Service (MHS).

wcCODE allows you to develop custom applications to enhance or
change Wildcati’s operation. BASIC-like syntax combined with an Integrated

Development Environment makes it easy to use the more than 200 built-in
functions, including access to Wildcatfs internal operations. Aou can create
applications like on-line order systems or callback verifiers, or customize
Wildcatfs user interface to give you the ultimate corporate bulletin board system.

And the list of advanced BBS features goes on. Your users will also enjoy
wcCHAT, our new online conferencing chat system, which features public and
private channels, Sysop-definable action words, even moderated conferencing.
Wildcat! supports CD-ROM technology via our utility
wcFILE, so you can add
files to your BBS

quickly and easily. A'

You’ll appreciate
wcMAlL, our
.QWK mail door for
off-line messaging,
that now imports and
retrieves messages faster
than ever with message sizes up
to 64KB in length. For customer response polls, tap into the power of
MAKEQUES, a full-featured questionnaire editor to create online surveys
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Everything you need to set up and control a complete BBS environment
is available in one solution. Everything in our suite is written and supported by
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MUSTANG Connecting The World In ‘94

SOFTU inc. Mustang Software, Inc, • 6200 Lake Ming Road • Bakersfield, CA 93306
805-873-2500 •. FAX 805-873-2599 • BBS 805-873-2400

D Ur THE dUUK ■ HtALTH

—

■H

COMMUNICATE
ON PRODIGY

VOLUME AND
VARIETY

2 MILLION
MEMBERS

47 BOARDS
900 TOPICS

50-100,000
NOTES POSTED
DAILY

PRODIGY

Service

To find out more
about how you can
join the online
community call
1-800-PRODIGY

OF!
NO
/ Nl
ID i
i Ml
Cl
ARJ
H

HOME OFFICE ■ IN I EhNaI lONAL BUSINES:

IS ■
TR/
PO
UTE
SCI
IRI1
AL<
SE i
PL

BOOKS & ARTS

TOPICS: Animation • Anime • Books/Fiction • Books/ Nonfiction •
Comic Books • Comic Book Clubs • Dance • Imitation
Hemingway • Kurt Vonnegut • Magazines • Mystery Novels •
Other Clubs • Puppetry • Radio • Romance Novels • Theater •
Thomas Keneally • Visual Arts • Writing/Poetry • Writing/Prose •
Writing/Techniques • Other

l/s ■

R/
PO
TE
SCI
Rll
AL<
E i
PL

OFI

D i

ARI

H
I/S ■

CARS & MOTORCYCLES

TOPICS: 1994 Cars • Antiques & Classics • Auto Racing • Car
Audio i Clubs • Domestic • Engines • Events • Hot Rods &
Customs • Imports • Motorcycles • Muscle Cars • Off Road/
Support Ute. • Paint & Bodywork • Shop Talk • Sports Cars •
Trucks/Trucking • Wheels & Tires

COLLECTING

TOPICS: Announcements • Art/Antiques • Autographs • Books/
Magazines • Bottles & Glass • Casino Chips/Tokens • Coins &
Currency • Comic Clubs • Comics • Cottages • Dept 56 • Disney •
Dolls • Figurines • Hallmark • Militaria $ Music Memorabilia t
Postcards • Pottery & Dinnerware • Precious Moments»Sci Fi
Collectibles • Stamps • Teddy Bears • Tins • Toys • TV/Movie
Memorabilia# Other

COMEDY

TOPICS: Classic Comedy • Comedians • Comedy Feedback •
Church of Kotyk • Humorists • Just Jokes • Kids in the Hall •
Monty Python • Professional • Stories • Other

COMPUTER

TOPICS: BBS Numbers • Beginners • Board Info/News • CAD
Software • Communications • Computer Networks • Databases •
Desktop Publishing • Financial Software • Graig Grossman •
Graphics • Hardware: Peripherals • Hardware: Systems t Mac
Hardware • Mac Software • MIDI/Computer Audio • Multimedia &
CD-ROM • Operating Systems • Portable Computing •
Programming t Shareware Discuss • Software • Spreadsheets •
User Interfaces • Utilities • Windows • Word Processors

COMPUTER SUPPORT

TOPICS: Business Software • Desktop Publishing • Financial
Software • Graphics t Multimedia • Peripherals • Systems • User
Groups• Utilities • Word Processing

CRAFTS

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Crafts For Kids • Crochet • Cross-Stitch • Dollhouse/Miniatures •
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t Needlework • Painting • Paper • Quilting • Rubber Stamps •
Seasonal Crafts • Sewing • Smocking/Heirloom • Spinning/Weaving
• Stained Glass • Swaps & Robins • Woodworking • Other

EDUCATION

TOPICS: Administration • Adult Ed • Alumni Reunions t College
Issues • Counselors t Curriculum • Dr. Samuel Blumenfeid •
Educational Software • Gifted & Talented • Graduate Studies t
Home Schooling • Homework • In the News • Library/Media •
Pre-School • PTA • Reform • Special Ed • Student Activities •
Teachers • Other

FOOD

TOPICS: Appetizers • Asian Cuisine • Beans/Rice & Grains •
Breads/Pizza/Pasta • Breads By Machine • Busy Cook • Coffee &

Teas • Cookbooks • Cookie Exchange t Desserts and Sweets •
Easter & Passover • Eating Out • Ethnic • Fish • Food Exchange •
Food Forum • Food Software t Healthy Eating • Holiday &
Entertainment • Kaffeeklatsch • Kitchen Equipment • Sauces •
Soups & Stews • Tex-Mex & BBQ • Vegetables • Vegetarians

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

CAREERS

TOPICS: Accounting • Airline • Arts & Entertainment t Career
Change • Civil Service • Communications • Computer • Consulting
• Court Reporting • Design/Construction • Engineering t
Entrepreneurs • Financial • Fire # Hotel & Restaurant • Insurance •
Legal • Management • Medical/ Veterinary t Military • Police •
Position Wanted • Relocating • Sales & Retail • Sec’tl/Word
Proc/DTP • Travel • Other

TOPICS: Arabic • Celtic Languages«Danish • Dutch • Esperanto
• Finnish • French • German • Greek • Hebrew • Italian •
Japanese t Korean t Latin • Native American Languages •
Norwegian • Polish t Portugese • Russian • Spanish • Swedish •
Thai • Ukranian • Other

GAMES

TOPICS: Board/Card Games t Chess • CD-ROM Entertainment •
Coin-Op Arcade Games • Dungeons & Dragons • Fantasy Games
A-L«Fantasy Games M-Z • Fantasy Games Clubs • Flight
Simulators • Flight Sim Clubs • Game Design • Modem-to-Modem
Games • Other Games • Other Game Clubs • Paper RPG’s • Paper
RPG Clubs • PRODIGY Games • Rumors/News«Sci-Fi Games A-L t
Sci-Fi Games M-Z • Sci-Fi Games Clubs • Sports Games • Star Trek
RPG A-S • Star Trek RPG T-Z • Text Adventures • Video Games t
Video Games Clubs • War/Strategy Clubs • War/Strategy Games

GENEALOGY

TOPICS: Surnames A-H • Surnames 1-0 • Surnames P-Z • U.S. Nat!
Resources • U.S. State Resources • Adoption • African-American

• Announcements • Beginners • British Isles # Canada • Geneal’y &
Computers • German • Heritary Societies • Hispanic • Irish • Italian

• Jewish t Missing • Native American • Other Countries •

Reference • Royal & Ancient • Scandinavian t Other

GOD OF THE BOOK

TOPICS: Anglican/Episcopal • Baha’L • Baptist • Bible • Board
Library • Born-Again Believer • Catholic Other • Catholic Roman
• Christian Science • Churches of Christ • Clergy/Religious Ed •
Eastern Orthodox • Evangelical/Nazarene • Fundamentalist Chr •
House Churches • Islam/Koran • Jehovah’s Witness • Judaism •
Messianic Jews • Methodist e Not The Party Line • Pentecostal •
Prayer Line t Presbyterian • Protestant/Other • Seventh-Day
Adventist • Unitarian Univ Assn # United Ch of Christ

HEALTH

TOPICS: Body Building • Cosmetic Enhancements • Dental Care •
Diet/Nutrition • Emotional Therapy • Exercise • Eye Care •

Family Medicine • Foot Care • Health In Media • Holistic
Medicine • Home Remedies • Hygiene • Injuries/Healing •

Internal Medicine • Men’s Health • Over-The-Counter •

Pregnancy • Safety/Prevention • Skin Care • Sleep/Dreams •
Stress Management • Vitamins • Weight Control • Women’s
Health t Other

HOBBIES

TOPICS: Astrology • Aviation • Birding • Camp/Hike/Backpack •
Climbing • Clubs • Ham Radio • Historical Re-Enact • History •
Lang. & Culture Study • Lottery • Martial Arts t Metal Detecting»
Model Making • More Radio Hobbies • Naturists • Outdoor
Activities • Pen Pals • Photography • Radio Control • Rocketry •
Slot Cars • Sweepstaking • Tarot • Trains • Videography • Other

HOMELIKE

TOPICS: Adoption Issues • Adoptive Parents • Building & Repair
• Couponing • Daycare • Divorce # Families • Fashion t Garden •
Grandparents • Home Electronics • Home Organization • Interior
Decorating • Marriage • Neale Godfrey • Parenting 0-5 Yrs •
Parenting 6-12 Yrs»Parenting Multiples • Parenting Practices •
Parenting Special Needs • Parenting Teens • Playful Parenting •
Shopping • Stay-At-Home Parents • Traditions • Other

HOME OFFICE

TOPICS: Banking • Business Services • Business Start-Up •
Computer Industry • Entertainment • Finance & Accounting •
Food/Restaurant • Health Care t Insurance t Investment • Legal

CIENCE & ENVIRONMENT ■ SCIENCE FICTION ■ SENIORS ■ SERVICE CLUBS ■ SINGLES ■ SPORT:

■ INTERNET ■ LIFESTYLES ■ MARKETPLACE ■ MEDICAL SUPPORT ■ MEMBER EXCHANGE ■ MC

& Gov’t Matters • Making $ w/Your PC • Manufacturing •
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Equipment • Opportunities • Personal Services • Real Estate •
Retail Goods•Retail Services • Secretarial/DTP • Specific
Industries • Travel/Transport • Other Industries

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TOPICS: Africa • Business Start-Up • Eastern Europe • European
Community • In the News • Int’l Investing • Int’l Marketing •
Japan • Latin America • Middle East • Multilingual Help •
Opportunities • Pacific Basin • Product Sourcing • Other

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TOPICS: Beginners Read First • E Mail Addresses • General •
Internauts • Internetiquette • Mailing Lists • Suggestions

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TOPICS: Adoption Issues • Alternative Lifestyles • Cultures •
Derek & Darlene Hobson • Diet • Divorce Issues • Emotional
Therapy • Exercise • Holistic Medicine • Medical • Men’s Issues

• New Age Lifestyles • Nutrition • Parenting Issues • Pen Pal
Requests • Relationships • Sexual Issues • Single Parenting •
Vitamins • Weight Control • Women’s Issues • Other

MARKETPLACE

TOPICS: Automobiles • Computer Hardware • Computer
Peripherals • Computer Shareware • Computer Software • Crafts

• Electronic Equipment • Game Cartridges • Household Items •
Musical Instruments • Music Recordings • Real Estate • Sports
Equipment • Tickets • Videos • Other

MEDICAL SUPPORT

TOPICS: AIDS • Alcohol Abuse • Alzheimer’s • Arthritis •
Attention Deficit • Cancer • Chronic Fatigue Syndrome • Crohn’s/
Colitis • Deaf/Hearing Loss • Depression/Anxiety • Diabetes •
Disabilities • Drug Abuse • Eating Disorders • Grief/Death • Heart
Disease • Infertility • Lupus • Multiple Sclerosis • Neurological •
Other Medical • Rare Diseases • Sexual Abuse • Smoking •
Stuttering • Vision Loss • Weight Loss

MEMBER EXCHANGE

TOPICS: Journalist • Mail Manager • Member Feedback • Member
Services • Member Utilities • New Member • News/Weather/Ref

• Newspapers Online • P* Bulletin Boards • Pricing Plans •
Prodigy for Business • Prodigy for Windows • PRODIGY H/S-S/W

MONEY TALK

TOPICS: Banking & Credit • Bonds • Beginners • Brokerages •
Clubs/Games/Groups • Financial Planning • Futures • Insurance

• International • Investment Theory • Investment Tools • Mutual
Funds • Options • Other Investments • Personal Budgeting •
Real Estate • Stocks # Taxes • Technical Analysis • Other

MOVIES

TOPICS: Academy Awards • Action/Adventure • Actor/Actress •
Be The Critic • Classics • Comedy • Coming Attractions • Drama

• Foreign • Horror • Kids/Family • Laser Discs • Musicals • Mystery/
Suspense • Rocky Horror • Talk to the Critics • Videos • Other

MUSIC

TOPICS: Acappela/Voice • Big Band/Nostalgia • Blues • CCM •
Classic Rock • Classical • Clubs • Concerts & Tours • Country •
Dance • Drum & Bugle Corps • Folk • Jazz • KISS • Latin • Metal •
Modern Rock • Musician/Songwriters • New Age • Oldies Music

• Rap • Reggae • Religious Music • Rock Music A-K • Rock Music
L-Z • Soft Rock/Pop • Soul • Techno • Other

NEWS

TOPICS: Crime Punishment • Economic Issues • In The News •
Local Politics • Newstoons • Political Philosophy# Politics of
Health • Politics: Congess • Politics: Courts • Politics: Other •
Town Meeting • White House/Congess • World Politics • Other

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TOPICS: Adoption & Rescue • Barnyard Pets • Birds • Breeders’
Directory • Cats • Dogs • Exotic Pets • Fish & Aquaria • Horses •
Industry Talk • Pigs • Poems • Rabbits • Reptiles/Amphibians •
Small Mammals • Young Pet-Lovers • Veterinary Care • Other

RADIO

TOPICS: Behind The Mic • Howard Stern • Howard Stern Fan
Club • Michael Bloomberg • Music Radio • News Radio • Rush
Limbaugh • Sports Radio • Stern Show: Boy Gary • Stern Show:
Jokeman • Talk Radio

RELIGION CONCOURSE

TOPICS: A Course in Miracles • Academics/Study • Angels &
Miracles • Atheist/Agnostic • Anglican/Episcopal • Board
Library • Books/Publications • Buddhist • Church/State • Cult
Survivors • Debates/Relig Issues • Hindu • Interfaith • Mother
Earth • Myth/Legend • Native American • New Age • Pagans •
Philosophy/Ethics • Poems & Proverbs • Prayer Line • Recv/
Higher Power • Science/Metaph/Relsire • Vampires • W1CCA

SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT

TOPICS: Archeology • Astronomy • Biology • Atmosphere •
Chemistry • Clubs • Earth Sciences • Ecology • Engineering •
Gov’t-Regulatory • Green Issues • In Your Community •
Mathematics • Meteorology • Nuclear«Paleontology •
Paranormal Research • Physics • Pollution • Social Sciences •
Space Exploration • Telecommunications • Technology • The
Mind • UFO • Waste Management • Wildlife • Other

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TOPICS: Battlestar Galactica • Beauty & The Beast •
Books/Fanzines • Clubs • Conventions • Dark Shadows • Dr.
Who • Douglas Adams • Fandamonium • Genuises • Isaac
Asimov • JR Tolken • Melanie Rawn • Movies • Piers Anthony •
Quantum Leap • Red Dwarf • Robert Jordan • Star Wars • Terry
Brooks • The X-Fiies • TV • Other

SENIORS

TOPICS: Born in the Teens • Born in the '20s • Born in the ’30s •
Coping • Financial • Pen Pal Requests • Retirement • Senior Living

• Singles • The Backyard Fence • Tax Questions • Travel • Other

SERVICE CLUBS

TOPICS: 4-H Clubs • AFS & Other Exchange Club • Big
Brothers/Sisters # Boys & Girls Clubs • Boy Scouts • Camp Fire
Boys/Girls • Civil Air Patrol • Civitan • Eagles • Eastern Star •
Elks • Fund Raising Ideas • Girl Scouts • Jaycees • Junior League

• Kiwanis • K of C • League of Women Voters • Lions • Masons •
Moose • Optimists Int’l • Peace Corps • Rotary • Sertoma • The
Exchange Club • YMCA/YWCA/YMHA, etc • Other

SINGLES

TOPICS: Coping • Dating • How to Meet • Pen Pal Requests •
Success Stories • Suddenly Single • The “Meeting” Place • Other

SPORTS

TOPICS: Auto Racing • Baseball: College • Baseball: Fantasy •
Baseball: Pro • Baseball: Rotisserie • Basketball: College •
Basketball: Fantasy • Basketball: Pro • Bowling • Boxing •
Figure Skating • Football: College • Football: Fantasy • Football:
Pro • Golf • Gymnastics • Hockey: College • Hockey: Fantasy •
Hockey: Pro • Horses • Other Fantasy Sports • Other Sports •
Soccer • Tennis • Wrestling: Fantasy • Wrestling: Pro

SPORTS PLAY

TOPICS: Archery • Baseball • Basketball • Bicycling • Billiards •
Boating • Darts • Fishing • Football • Golf • Hockey • Paintball •
Running • Scuba Diving • Shooting Sports • Skateboarding •
Skating • Skiing/Snowboarding • Skydiving • Soccer • Softball •
Surfing • Swimming • Table Tennis • Tennis • Volleyball • Walk-
Volksmarch • Waterskiing • Weightlifting • Other

STAR TREK

TOPICS: Actors/Actresses • Books/Other Print • Characters/Aliens

• Clubs: Original Series • Clubs: TNG • Clubs: DS9 • Clubs: Voyager

• Clubs: Other • Conventions • Games (Computer/Board) •
Memorabilia • Movies • News/Rumors/Gossip • RPG’s A-M •
RPG’s N-Z • Show Comparison • Show Criticism • Tech Talk • Ten
Forward • Trivia • TV: Original Series • TV: The Next Generation

• TV: Deep Space Nine • TV: Voyager • Other

TEENS

TOPICS: Alternative Lifestyles • Baby-sitters Club • Books/Writing •
Careers • Clubs • College • Current Events • Dating Issues •
Environment • Fashion • Hobbies • Metal • Modern Rock •
Movies • Music • Pen Pals 12-15 • Pen Pals 16-20 • Polls/Trivia/
Lists • Pop/Rock/Rap • Problems & Advice • Religion • School •
Social Life • Sports • Teen Talk • TV/Video • Wheels • Other

THE CLUB

TOPICS: Baby-sitters Club • Books • Careers • Clubs • Current
Events • Environment • Fantasy Leagues • Fashion • Film •
Hobbies • Metal • Modern Rock • Music • Organizations •
en Pal Requests • Polls/Trivia/Lists • Pop/Rap/Rock •
Schoolwork/Jr. High • Schoolwork/Elem. • Sports • TV and Video

• Wheels# Other

TRADING CARDS

TOPICS: Announcements • Auctions • Autographed Cards •
Baseball • Basketball • Cartoons/Comics • Football • Hockey •
Non-Sports • Racing Cars • Related Collectibles • Starting
Lineups# Trading# Other

TRAVEL

TOPICS: Accommodations • Adventure Travel • Afloat • Air
Travel • Asia • Best Loved Hotels • Camping • Canada •
Caribbean • Casino/Gaming • Disabled/Travel • Europe •
International • Kids 'N Travel • Latin America •
Midwest/Plains/Rockies • Motorcycling • NE/Midatlantic •
Northwest/Alaska • Pacific • Rail • Rec Vehicle • Road •

Southeast • Singles Travel • Ski Resorts • Theme Parks • Time
Shares • Travel Photography • West/Las Vegas • Other

TOPICS: Beavis & Butthead • Beverly Hills 90210 • Cartoons •
Children’s Television • Fall Shows • Home Shopping • Joan
Lunden • Jonathan Brandis • MST 3000 • Music Channels •
Northern Exposure • PBS • Premium Channels • Quantum Leap •
Saturday Night Live • Saved by the Bell • Seinfeld • SOTW-South
Central • SOTW-Academy Awards • Sport Channels • Talk Shows

• TV News • TV Soap Operas (A-F) • TV Soap Operas: G-Z • TV:
A-K • TV: L-Z • Vintage TV • Other

TV NETWORKS

TOPICS: AMC AXFD80A. Bravo BNNA90A. Cartoon Net.

APHC80A. CBS CBSOOIA. CMT CCJU40B. CNBC NJSF58A.

CNN AWVNS1A. Comedy Cent’l EKHA72A. Court TV AHGE45A.

E! AGKB80A. Encore AKJC30A. ESPN JJSY99A. ESPN2 JJSY99B.
Headline News AWVN51C • JCN Computers YNCB55B • Lifetime
GCPA23A. ME/U: Ed Net YNCB55a. Sci-Fi AFVY87A. TNN
CCJU40A • TNT ATGD30A • USA Network AFVBY87F. WGN EGJA22

VETERANS

TOPICS: Air Force • Army • Cadets • Champus Help • Coast
Guard • Daily Bulletin • Desert Storm • Disabled Veterans •

Desert Storm • Employment/ Training • Korea • Looking For •
Marines • Merchant Marines • Military Brats • Navy • Nurses •
Reunions • Spouses • VA • Vietnam • World War II • Other

WINE, BEER & SPIRITS

TOPICS: Beer Basics • Beer: Homebrewing • Beer Talk • Breweries
& Pubs • Liqueurs • Mead/Saki/Ciders • Mixed Drinks • Spirits •
Wine Basics • Wine Making & Equip • Wine Talk • Other

«•<

SPORTS PLAY ■ STAR TREK ■ TEENS ■ THE CLUB ■ TRADING CARDS ■ TRAVEL ■ TV NETWO

Technology Front

PAGING ALL COMPUTERS

Jim Thompson
Western News Service

T’Vuring the month of May, 1994, the
JypBBS system that I manage (Marl¬
boro Racing News — The Official
IndyCar News Service) joined with
NewsPager Corporation of America and
Motorola for a unique experiment. The
experiment combined BBS and
computer technology with the latest in
radio paging technology.

The resulting system allowed journal¬
ists covering the Indianapolis 500 to
receive realtime read-outs of race cars
as they ran on the track at the historic
brickyard. They also received alerts of
news items posted on Marlboro Racing
News directly on their PCs. All of this
was sent directly to their pagers and/or
computers via radio waves.

The software for this unique system
was designed by NewsPager Corpora¬
tion of America. The hardware (a
specially built alpha-numeric pager or
an RNet receiver) was provided by
Motorola. Not only does the pager
contain more memory than normal, it
can also be connected directly to a PC
via a serial connector. The resulting
system allowed those with the pagers or
RNet units to be constantly in touch
with happenings at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway and with the IndyCar
series.

Before explaining the details, let me
first give you a bit of background on
why this system is noteworthy espe¬
cially for the journalistic community.

The Marlboro Racing News BBS is
concerned with the coverage of breaking
news for news organizations. Covering
such events is a complex process
requiring a range of abilities and experi¬
ence. A team of reporters is needed to
monitor events and provide reports as
quickly as possible. The information
must be transmitted in the most effi¬
cient manner and in the most effective
format. Finally, and in some cases this
is the most important element of all, the
end user must be aware that an update
or new item is available.

Since our BBS is open only to working
journalists, newspapers, magazines and
news services,
it is critical
that they
receive
current news
in a timely
manner. News
is a perishable
commodity.

In years past,
keeping up
with world
events meant
regular trips
to the teletype
machine in
the newsroom.

The pace of
news and of
news reporters
was tied to the constant beat and the
irregular clacking and clicking of the
teletype which held the world and all its
events on an endless stream of paper.

No one realized, or for that matter
cared, that the information was some¬
times delayed as much as several hours
or that it was available only to those in
the newsroom. As long as the clacking
continued, the impression was that
nothing was being missed — that
anything newsworthy was being moni¬
tored and all was right with the world.

The world has changed significantly
since then. Nowadays, many news items
would already be considered old by the
time a teletype machine (working at the
lightening speed of 60-baud) even
printed them out. The old teletype
would not even be able to handle the
volume of news that is currently gener¬
ated in a typical day. There would be
much less news and, certainly, much
less accuracy in reporting news, if the

only people with access to information
were those in the newsroom.

Marlboro Racing News is dedicated to
providing accurate information and
statistics on the IndyCar race series to
journalists as quickly as possible.
Following a race, news organizations
around the world rely on us to provide
them with full reports, accurate statis¬
tics and photographs from the race site
within minutes of the event.

But covering races is only part of the
service we provide. For many organiza¬
tions, it is the information we provide at
times when there is not a race that is

often the most critical. It is this area of
coverage that resulted in our unique
agreementwith NewPager Corporation
of America.

In cooperation with Motorola, the Indi¬
anapolis Motor Speedway and the United
StatesAuto Club (USAC), NewsPager
Corporation of America setup a system
whereby journalists could receive
instant reports and news along with
timing and scoring information via a
radio-controlled pager system.

This was a cooperative effort between
all of the agencies. Motorola provided
pocket-sized “Inflo” pagers which were
specially designed for this task. The
pagers have more memory than normal
(128K) and, as NewsPager says, “The
Inflo by Motorola is unique in its capa¬
bility of keeping up with the torrid pace
of information at the brickyard.” USAC
provided the link between the pager
system and the track telemetry system.
Marlboro Racing News provided news
from the IndyCar series.

Motorola Inflo NewsPager

48 Boardwatch - August 1994

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The pager units were give to journalists
at no charge. Others were charged a
modest fee. All profits from this test
system run during the month of May
were donated to charity.

NewsPager provided a range of services
on the pagers during the duration of the
test. Among those services was Marl¬
boro Racing News. As stories were
posted on our BBS, they were also sent
to NewsPager for distribution over
radio waves via the pagers. This solved
a key problem — how to notify journal¬
ists that new items have been posted.

In the past, it was not unusual for a
reporter to call into Marlboro Racing
News at, say, 1:00pm only to find that
no new items were available. We might
actually update the news at 1:05pm.
But the person who called five minutes
earlier had no way of knowing about
this update. The result is that they
might not call again for another day or
even another week.

NewsPager Corporation of America
devised a unique software program that
addresses this problem. The Motorola
pager unit itself has a cradle that allows
it to be connected via a serial port to a
PC. Programmers at NewsPager wrote
a C+ language program that runs
under Microsoft Windows called
News@10. As data is received over the
pager network, it automatically updates
the News@10 program. A simple-to-
use-and-understand interface allows the
user to select and display news as it is
received or to review past items. Alarms
can be set to instantly inform the user if
a particular item is received or updated.

In addition to Marlboro Racing News,
the NewsPager system provides a range
of services on their pager units and via
News@10. These services include real¬
time readouts of cars as they run on the
track at Indianapolis, qualifying and
race reports, team lineups and driver
profiles. They also provide scores and
results from major league baseball,
NHL Hockey, NBA Basketball, UPI
Sports and UPI News headlines.

We sent news headlines and summaries
of the items posted on our BBS. Jour¬
nalists were alerted to important news
developments, press conferences or
interview opportunities. If the items
were of interest, they could call into
Marlboro Racing News for full details.
The News@10 software requires
MicroSoft Windows 3.1, 4-megabytes of
RAM, at least 3-megabytes of hard disk
space and an open serial port. You also
need a Motorola Inflo NewsPager or a
Motorola RNet Data Receiver. The

Motorola RNet Data Receiver with lap top

RNet is similar to the pager in that it
can receive the same data but does not
have a built-in viewing screen or on¬
board memory. It functions only in
connection with the News@10 program.

Those using the Motorola Pager units
who were at the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway during the month of May
received times and speeds of the cars as
they ran around the track.

Here is how it works: A total of 11
sensors buried under the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway track report the posi¬
tion and time reference of each car.
This data is sent to USAC’s data center
where it is interpreted and categorized.
The interpreted data is sent via a dedi¬
cated line to a NewsPager computer
running OS/2. Their system looks for
any changes in the data then sends the
changes using a patented technology
known as “mask-fill.” The data
(whether from the track or from any
other source, such as UPI or Marlboro
Racing News) is then sent to three main
paging channels in the NewsPager
system: ComTech Paging (an area-wide
system), EMBARC (a nationwide
system) and Paging USA (a trackside
system). The information is broadcast
on each of the paging channels and
received instantly by the NewsPager
units.

All of this data transfer is happening in
seconds as the cars travel around the
track at speeds in excess of 200 miles-
per-hour! It takes less than 8 seconds
from the time a sensor picks up
telemetry from a car to the time the
read-out (time, speed, car and driver)
appears on the pager.

For the future, we hope to expand our
association with NewsPager Corpora¬
tion of America, Motorola and IndyCar.
The plans include coverage of all 16-

races in the IndyCar series beginning in
1995. We are also experimenting with
the possibility of sending photos over
the paging network through the use of
fractal compression.

Journalists on the system would be able
to receive the fractal images on their PC
along with the latest news headlines
and summaries without ever making a
call. Best of all, they would never have
to worry about missing anything.

The addition of the pager technology
does not mean that our BBS is suddenly
obsolete. It actually increases the
usefulness of Marlboro Racing News.

Although the Inflo can be called a
“Super Pager” because of its increased
data capacity, there is a limit to the
amount of data that can practically be
sent via the pager system.

Journalists will still need to call our
system to receive the full text of news
items. Also, although the fractal images
look great on the screen, they are not
anywhere near the quality needed for
publication. A newspaper will still have
to call our system to download the full-
resolution versions of the photos.

This is a perfect example of the benefits
that can be gained by combining tech¬
nologies. As a Sysop, you must always
keep your eyes open to new possibilities.
The information highway is still under
construction and we are the architects.

(Jim Thompson is Managing Editor
of Western News Service in Los
Angeles, California. He also manages
the Marlboro Racing News BBS.
CompuServe: 72 7 7 7,267 7,MCI
Mail: 321-4127, INTERNET: jim.
thompson @wnsnews.com)

Boardwatch - August 1994 51

Electronic Mail

New

Read your personal Messages
Send nail to another user
List contents of nailbox
Read your new na i 1 i\

Find Search Message headers or texts
Inquire I Check Messages sent to others
PurgePurge Messages fron nailbox
Quit ] Return to previous nenu

...you won t

Turn any RIP screen into a custom menu...
Searchlight can generate menus automatcally.

The Information Superhighway is here at last—and
wherever you go, the on-ramps are jammed. Every day,
thousands of new callers get connected...and more new
Bulletin Board Systems go online.

You can't afford to be just another horse in the race
anymore—your BBS program has to help you get ahead
of the pack. That's why you need Searchlight 4.0.

RIP support—not RIP service

Menus
"on the fly

Local

Some choose Windows; others
pick OS/2. But everyone loves
the dazzling displays, intuitive
menus and mouse support that
a graphical user interface
provides. They don't like giving
those features up whenever they
call a BBS.

That's why more and more
callers use the Remote Imaging
Protocol by TeleGrafix—and
every BBS program says they
support RIP. But all RIP support
isn't created equal. Ask these
questions to see how your BBS
compares to Searchlight 4.0:

"Searchlight has
incorporated RIP
technology
to an

amazingly
integrated level
with their BBS
...It looks hot."

Jack Rickard
Boardwatch Magazine

raw indon Bu rouse

8:05:45 pm

Hudson
Shannon ft
Jef

John P.

Evan

Rich

Robert

Ernest

Martin

Chris

Rich

Brian

Michael

ftl

John

Ted

;3tll2

—a

m/m

Searchlight 4.0 lets sysops
see RIP graphics...

Can you use your mouse to move up and down a list
line by line? Or are you just clicking on buttons that say
[CJontinue, [NJonstop, [S]top?

Can you tag items by clicking on them
with the mouse? Or are you still typing
line numbers or pressing keys?

Can you confirm a choice by clicking
with the mouse? Or do you still have to
press Enter ?

Can you generate RIP menus on the
fly—so you can create custom menus in
seconds? Or are you stuck with default
menus—unless you buy a paint program
and spend hours drawing screens?

Can you see RIP? Do you see the same
screens callers do, so you can test
screens and features locally? Or do you
just see streams of meaningless codes
unless you call from another computer?

Nobody offers better RIP support than Searchlight
Software, Inc. We released the first RIP-compatible BBS
in March, 1993. We introduced the first BBS with
internal RIP support—featuring pick lists, graphical
menus and dialog boxes—last August.

Searchlight 4.0 is the first BBS program with local RIP
support. It's the only BBS program with a fully
graphical user interface.

And on August 17, 1994, we'll release the first BBS
program that supports RIP 2.0—so your callers can see
JPEG images and hear digitized sound online.

Searchlight 4.0's direct video support lets you run
any text-based DOS program as a door

Windows, OS/2, RIP, dBase, FoxPro, Paradox,
Clipper, Clarion and Digiboard are trademarks of
their respective companies.

DDP New!

DDD Version 4.0

believe your GUIs

♦IBAT60B8721ZAI69AM5JB55JB8690K
♦!ZAQ6AAT63B063B16A0K!FAX5X00!BBE69BL7S
!IZBE68BU4UCE6NBU6S0K
!1ZBU6SC26UC36ZC2750KIBBU75C27S
♦!ZBU75BX73BU69BO6Z0K!LB06VB06N
fIZBO6NB96UBX5UBK690KIFBS5Z00
?1ZCT5RBV5OBZ82CT7T0K1LCT5QCT65
f!LCT7FCT7T!ZCS65CA66C87DCT7G0K!FCD6900
?1BC95RD47S1BD46IDG6U1BDF5RHE7S!c0F
♦!S010F!BDN5TDU7E!ZDN7ED07NDM7T E3 7R0K
?!ZDU78DS7BDU7GE37D0K!LE37EE37R!FDR7K0F
!!BE95TEG7R!ZFK62EM4UEC7VF87T0K
♦!ZF87TFN7OFN7DFO700K!BF66MF06Z
♦!ZFG6ZFH7MEJ7IF2670K
!IZF167F665FD67FG6E0KILFG6EFK62IFF37L0F
♦IBFW5TG27R1BG16IGC6UIBGC5TGJ7R
♦!BGP5THB67!BGX68H47R!c00!LEC50EC4I
!!LDI52F652ILE34UEM5B1LE35AEM4U
!!LE64REI5D!LE75DEH4TILDZ4ZEP56
♦ILDX57EQ4V1LE851EC51!c011900000100
? !00279l/eleone to Searchlight BBS
?!P027JVou won't believe your GUIs\?
*!#!#!#

Open any door

RIP file
manager

RIP

While other programs can
only display RIP codes

25 File<s>

SLSOFT - Searchlight Prograns and Info
| Show All Files j { Search bg Date [ {Search by Keyword j [ Quit
(Directories) | File List ( ) View F ile 1 ) Prev Dir | j Next Dir

FiIenane St Size D1 Date

[Download}

f Upload

If XProto

Edit if Kill |

t Owner ^

[ Passud

11 Renane

Copy || Move |

•IT

Scroll anywhere in the directory...

Tag items and run commands by clicking with the mouse

Then use our RIP styles menu to add buttons and
wallpaper—we'll generate your menus on the fly. Or
use your favorite paint program to draw a RIP
screen.. .and let us put your menu on it.

When you want a custom BBS, we'll help you build it
quickly and easily. With Searchlight 4.0, you can leave
the compiling to us.

A hobby BBS might want to install external programs
("doors") so users can play games online. A business
BBS might need to let users drop to DOS and run a
custom application through a door.

Some major BBS developers don't support
doors—if you want an online database, you
buy their overpriced imitations of dBase.

Others make you buy an extra
utility—which you have to learn to use—in
order to run doors.

Searchlight 4.0 lets you run any text-based
program—including databases like FoxPro,
dBase and Paradox or applications designed
with Clipper and Clarion—as a door. Just set
one switch.. .then forget it. We make running
spreadsheets online as easy as 1-2-3.

No fine print

Your callers will like what Searchlight 4.0 does. You'll
like what Searchlight Software, Inc. won't do.

We never sell Digiboard support, RIP
add-ons or menu editors—we include
them free with every copy. Our tech
support is always free. When you want
to add lines, we credit all your
purchase price toward your upgrade.

And we're not selling a terminal. So we
include RIPterm (TeleGrafix's free,
RIP-compatible terminal) with every
order, so you can help all your callers
"get RIPped."

good choice
for

beginners ..."

Business Week
(11/22/93)

Improvise without scripts

If you're just starting out, you'll want a high-quality
interface "out of the box." But when you're ready to
customize your BBS, you'll want to be able to change
the look and feel quickly and easily.

Some programs make you rewrite their source code if
you want to change your menus. Others want you to
buy a script language and program in it.

We think our engineers—not our sysops—should do
the programming. Our menu editor lets you put any
feature on any menu. You can add doors to a menu—or
select one of over 100 internal commands.

$99 . single line $299 . 1-10 lines

$179 . 1-3 lines $399 . unlimited lines

So call us for your fully functional demo of Searchlight
4.0 today. And see why our sysops and their callers say
that Searchlight just isn't like the other GUIs.

1-800-988-LITE

Visa • MC • Amex • Discover
Tech support 216-631-9290
BBS 216-631-9285 • Fax 216-631-9289
Searchlight Software, Inc.

6516 Detroit Ave, Cleveland, OH 44102

People Online

CYBER STALKER AND THE
POKER CLUB

by Phyllis Phlegar

T he recent publicity about online
stalkers got me thinking about a
friend of mine whom I met about a
year ago on Delphi. I’d already surfed
a few other online services and wanted
to see what Delphi was like. It seemed
like a good place to do a lot of live chat¬
ting and perhaps I’d meet someone
interesting. First week out, I did; a
writer named Ted Remington.
Remington and I had a lot to talk
about; we’d both met the love of our
life online, liked the same parts of
country, and had similar occupations.
In addition to his regular job as a tech¬
nical writer, he was writing a novel
about a serial killer who takes his
obsession online. I wanted to read it,
and even though Remington had only
gotten the first few chapters done, he
uploaded them to me. It was hard to
stop reading, but I had to, the novel
wasn’t finished yet.

Over the past year, I kept up with
Remington through e-mail, and a few
weeks ago he sent me the finished
novel (on disk) that he says is a cross
between a horror story and a techno¬
thriller.

Remington got the idea for his book
after an online friend confided in him
that she was having trouble with
someone who started out as being a

fairly nice guy, but suddenly became
obsessed with her. He said, at one
point, that he was going to find her,
kill her husband and take her away as
his “love slave.” Ted’s imagination
went wild. Not much later, “Poker-
Club” began to take shape. The main
character is a control freak named
Leonard. Leonard’s parents died in a
plane crash, and left him enough
money to live on for the rest of his life.
Planning murders was how Leonard
entertained himself, and found cyber¬
space to be full of waiting victims.
With a handful of fake IDs and essen¬
tially untraceable money orders and
bank checks, Leonard could go online
pretending to be anyone he wanted to.
Usually his online bio said he was an
attractive man who was unhappily
married, which automatically made
him a somewhat sympathetic,
unthreatening figure. He’d get
involved with a woman, find out all he
could about her situation, and have
computer sex with her, as a winnowing
tool . The perfect victim was single,
not dating anyone in particular, and
willing to talk about themselves; where
they lived, what they did for a living,
and of course, would get quite
attached to him. When the time
came for Leonard and his unwit¬
ting victim to meet, he was
anything but the handsome, sexy,
sensitive everything-they -could-
ever-want man they’d been
involved with online. What they’d
see was a little, unremarkable
man, who had a painful death
planned for them, a murder which
would leave no clues and possibly
keep the local police baffled
forever. Sounds like very scary
stuff. Remington’s point in
writing the book (which he says
even gives HIM nightmares) was
to say “User beware! There are
people out there who will hurt you
if they get the chance.” I am
about halfway through Remington’s
book, and I am hoping that the police
will finally find Leonard...but I also
am afraid they won’t. As I read more
and more, it’s hard to miss the point
that the anonymity of the cyber world
is very fragile, and that you can be a
victim of the “Leonards” out there.
Remington is convinced that people
(adults AND children) have already
been assaulted, raped and killed as a

result of a contact that they made
online. The most vulnerable are the
single women, who are looking for a
relationship. For them, Remington
suggests a “shielded” post office box,
for starters. He also says watch out for
“little” questions that can help a
stalker locate you geographically, like
“do you go to many baseball games”
(figuring out your general location)
and then, “does it take long to get
there” and so on.

The most obvious question I had for
Remington was, how to spot the
“Leonards.” Unfortunately, it’s not
very easy. But there are a few things
to look out for, like one-way communi¬
cations. Be wary of someone who can’t
ever be reached on the phone (but calls
you) and asks “little searching ques¬
tions” about your location (“did you
say you were near...”) and your
personal life (“oh, your boyfriend
broke up with you recently...”)
Overall, Remington says to give your¬
self enough time to get to know
someone, because no one can put on an
act indefinitely and something is
bound to slip.

Remington is looking for a publisher
for “Poker Club,” and keeps getting
the catch-22 line that you can’t get a
book published without having...a book
published. But he believes (and I
agree) that this is a good book whose
time has come. Remington is already
working on another book, called Sitters
Club. It’s about a local bbs where
women exchange babysitting. But one

54 Boardwatch - August 1994

of the mothers is really a sicko who is
searching for victims to be in child
pornography, and “snuff” films.
Remington’s bio on Delphi mentions
Sitters Club and says “Don’t ask, it is
just TOO gruesome.” After recently
spending close to three hours chatting
with Remington, I had the feeling that
there was no where to hide! I asked
him, what did he do to protect himself?
He says it’s too late for him, and he
doesn’t worry about it; after all, one
needs to weigh the risks against the
gains. “I could not live like Salman-
Rushdie.” (If you’d like to get
in touch with Remington, he’s
TREMINGTON on Delphi, TREM-
INGTON@delphi.com on the Internet, and
he’s borrowed a friend’s p.o. box,
should you want to reach him by
regular mail, at Ted Remington, P.O.
Box 473277, Aurora, CO, 80047.)

[Phyllis Phlegar is a graduate of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, and also holds a private pilot’s
license. In 1974, she was the first female
news anchor for the North Carolina
News Network, and most recently
worked as a weather anchor on Business
Radio Network. She’s currently a free¬
lance announcer and her work can still
be heard on BRN, National Public Radio
and the Armed Forces Radio Network.
Phyllis is currently working on several
writing projects, including those for
Boardwatch Magazine, and Addison
Wesley Publishing Company.]

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Boardwatch - August 1994 55

JSStl

Internetica

CHEAP INTERNET MAIL
FROM WINDOWS

by Jack Rickard

QJ ince our first story on the Internet
Oin 1989, we’re received quite a bit
of reader comment on why we both¬
ered. This year, it is a bit more
apparent. But the truth is, of the 15-17
million playing hard online, probably a
scant million or so have ever made the
TCP/IP connection. Far more perva¬
sive has been the impact on electronic
mail. The Internet, or perhaps more
accurately the development of domain
name service addressing in late 1988,
has allowed the development of a
common e-mail backplane for online
services. By the end of last year, essen¬
tially all online services of any size had
connected to the “Internet” for the
transfer and delivery of electronic
mail. This eliminated the conundrum
of “e-mail islands” so long the status
quo in the online community. Now you
can send e-mail to virtually any service
from any service - anywhere in the
world. While it almost seems an
obvious necessity now, it didn’t come
easily.

Electronic bulletin boards have been
making the connection for several
years, but at this point it is reaching a
frenzy and by the end of this year,
virtually all subscription bulletin
boards will be passing electronic mail
and newsgroups to and from the
Internet. Many will endure the
expense and technical trauma of
connecting to the Internet itself via
TCP/IP to offer their callers telnet, ftp,
gopher, world wide web, and other
interactive services. And an increasing
number are also providing Internet
services such as SLIP accounts and
UUCP mail connections themselves.

The overall effect is a “connectivity
rush.” The first time you see Mosaic
spinning it’s globe and coughing GIF
images, allowing you to click your way
from Zagrebe to Zurich, it is nearly
overpowering. But after playing with
the toys, the person-to-person elec¬
tronic mail remains the nut around
which all else revolves. The “public”
forums provided by USENET news-
groups are technologically related and
also provide an important aspect of the
real usefulness of online technology.

But ultimately mail wants to be on the
desktop - not on the online service. The
connection costs, Internet or other¬
wise, cause us to constantly revisit this
scene. The development of FidoNet
point systems and QWK offline mail
readers revolve around the fact that
leaning on your elbows staring into the
monitor to browse the latest postings
in rec.humor doesn’t make much sense
at $6 per hour long distance costs if
you could just as easily download the
mail, DISCONNECT from the service,
and browse it at your convenience
offline.

Another relatively recent factor is
Microsoft Windows. While this doesn’t
sound recent, it actually is. It is true
that Microsoft did first announce
Windows back in 1985, and it is also
true that they’ve probably sold 50
million copies of it in the past two or
three years. Unfortunately, the soft¬
ware development community is just
NOW learning how to develop software
that 1. works and 2. makes sense. A
tremendous amount of Windows soft¬
ware was just plain broken and that
that did work too often made such a
mess of the “intuitive gui interface”
that no matter how hard or how fast
you clicked that little mouse, it was
extremely unlikely that you would ever
get anything done, or even find the
part of the program you were looking
for with the vain hope that if you could
find it, it would do what you wanted.

In the past six months, we’re seeing a
flurry of products that more or less
work, are installable, and do seem to
make sense with regards to the inter¬
face. And this offers some particularly
rich opportunities when dealing with
electronic mail and newsgroups.

The problem is that most of the sizzle
today is in TCP/IP mail programs. And
for the majority of individual callers,
TCP/IP just isn’t happening any time
soon. Fortunately, there is an alterna¬
tive. Many of the smaller bulletin
boards make the mail connection to an
Internet host using a relatively inex¬
pensive UUCP account. These dialup
accounts can be had for as little as $15-
$20 per month from traditional
Internet service providers such as
Holonet and Netcom. UUCP stands for
the Unix to Unix Copy Program and
traditionally it uses the UUCP g file
transfer protocol. As protocols go, it is
pretty lame - windowed up to 7 packets

with packet sizes that can theoretically
be up to 4096 bytes - but are usually
limited on most hosts to 64 bytes. It
predates XMODEM. But it is one way
to do an automated dialup connection
for electronic mail and newsgroups on
an intermittent basis.

Even better, the BBS software used by
many bulletin boards can now itself
allow service of UUCP, and as bulletin
boards themselves begin to offer these
UUCP mail accounts, the cost of such
connections will drop into a very
affordable range.

Icon group for WinNET Mail

So assuming that UUCP connections
will be very available and very inex¬
pensive, and further assuming that we
would all rather do mail from our
desktop at our leisure using a usable
Windows interface, we took a look
around for a Windows UUCP mail
program packaged such that an ordi¬
nary humanoid could install it. We
intentionally pretended that the bevy
of Windows interfaces for an under¬
lying Waffle installation did not exist.
Installation of this combination seems
to be more of a career move than a
weekend project.

*1!

Fuji: lira

Cqr«M Cento

Arpihw*

Mai cW&wm

MdReadw

He*.

News fleeter

Mews Pq^bi

NewsGanNI

Icon group for MKS
INTERNET ANYWHERE

And we were surprised to find rela¬
tively little available. We did find two
that were just broken enough that we
normally would pass on even
mentioning them, and just fascinating
enough that we had to anyway.
WinMail is a shareware program ($99)
and MKS Internet Anywhere is
commercial software at $149. Both
have some serious underlying technical
flaws, that can probably be fixed even-

Boardwatch - August 1994 57

tually. But the good news is that both
have absolutely mastered the Windows
interface far beyond anything we
expected. As to interacting with these
programs on the desktop, they are both
a joy to install, and to use for reading
and responding to electronic mail and
USENET news. You will NEVER go
back to TIN, RN, NN, or any other
UNIX newsreader we’ve seen.

WINMAIL 2.11

WinNetMail, more formally WinNET
Mail and News, was developed by
Computer Witchcraft, Inc. as a front
end for their Internet service. In fact,
the early versions of this program
ONLY worked with their online service.
But in more recent releases, including
version 2.11 we looked at, they do
support an “alternate” service provider
mode.

The program is available by ftp from
oak.oakland.edu in the /pub/msdos/
windows3 directory in the file
winmai211.zip. It is slightly over 686 KB
in size zipped. To install it, you simply
unzip it into a directory. Then, from
Windows, click on the SETUP .EXE and it
makes itself into a program group into
Windows.

There are some installation questions
that may give the absolute novice
pause. But we found them few in
number and relatively simple. Most
likely to cause confusion are your
LOCAL MACHINE NAME, the REMOTE
MACHINE NAME, and the DOMAIN
NAME.

UUCP was originally based on bang-
path addressing that was simply a list of
intermediary machines separated by the
! symbol, referred to as a bang. All
UNIX machines have a name - typically
8 characters or less. You must find out
from whoever you get a UUCP connec¬
tion from what the REMOTE MACHINE
NAME is. This is the machine you dial
into to pickup mail. You also must agree
with your host what your own machine
name is and enter that as the LOCAL
MACHINE NAME. Domain names can
cause some confusion, and this program
eliminates none of it. Typically it is
something like @ BOARDWATCH.COM. But
in this case, they want the domain
name of the HOST computer - without
the @ symbol. In this way, if your local
machine was REDSTAR and you got
your UUCP connection from the Board-
watch BBS, you would be
@REDSTAR.BOARDWATCH.COM. But in the

DOMAIN NAME field you would
enter BOARDWATCH.COM.

The other little installation
nightmare on a UUCP system is
the “chat script.” Almost all of
the elements of the session
protocol are quite automatic and
built into the UUCP g session
protocol itself. But you do have
to write a little script to logon to
the service, do the login
name/password dance, and get
TO the UUCP g protocol func¬
tion. From there, the two
programs can take over and do the
entire mail session. In UNIX, these
system scripts can be quite cryptic.
Both these programs do an excellent job
of simplifying this. In WinMail, there is
a file titled CHAT.RC. This is a simple
series of SEND and EXPECT sequences
that you enter to connect to your host.
It doesn’t include any modem parame¬

happen in the background. This was
very easy to use.

Mail is treated somewhat differently
from USENET news groups. It uses a
folders analogy fairly common now to
allow you to file inbound, outbound, and
otherwise bound mail. It has a search
function that is quite powerful and you
can search in any particulare folder, in
any particular
message, or
across all folders
for whatever
keywords you
are looking for.
Very intuitive
icons allow you
to go to the next
message, the
previous
message,
another folder,
reply to a
message, etc.

ters or even the phone number of your
host (which you do have to provide else¬
where). The script looks like this:

ogin:

redstar

sword:

bombay

terminal:

uucp

This script would dial the service and
wait for the prompt “login:” It would
respond by entering “redstar.” It then
waits for the “Password:” prompt. And
similarly enters “bombay.” And at the
“terminal:” prompt enters “uucp.” From
that point on, the protocol takes over
and holds a mail sesion.

The interface to this program is a work
of art - very easy to use and quite
powerful. The program allows you to
dial your host at will by clicking on an
icon, or to schedule regular mail calls to

The program generally hides most of
the Internet message header detritus. It
allows you to send carbon copies and
you can attach binary files very easily.
It automatically UUENCODES binary
files and attaches them to outbound
messages in a pretty standard format.
Similarly, if you receive an e-mail
message with an attached file in UUEN-
CODED format, you can select
DETACH BINARY FILE and it will
prompt you for a directory and file
name. It then does the UUDECODE
and creates the file in that directory.
Very easy to use.

The Newsgroup function is similarly
powerful with extensive search capabili¬
ties. You can enter a search word and it
will compile a list of messages with hits.
Simply click on each message to read
them, and the next/previous icons to
cycle. You can also respond to the
message poster privately, respond to the
newsgroup itself, or post a new message
to a newsgroup quite easily. Call up a
list of newsgroups and select the one
you want, and you will display a list of

58 Boardwatch - August 1994

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unread messages. You can click on one
of those to read it. After wrestling with
UNIX mail readers such as TIN and
NN, and dealing with the uneasy
alliance between bulletin board soft¬
ware and newsgroups, this is welcome
relief.

The program does have some draw¬
backs. First, it is badly crippled. In the
distributed shareware version, you can
only subscribe to 3 newsgroups and
connection speeds are limited to 2400
bps. These are both capacity/perfor¬
mance issues so until you register you
still won’t know. And at $99 it is a
non-trivial expense. Our normal reac¬
tion to this is simply to throw the thing
in the trash or send it to RAM heaven.
There are always a few individuals who
do want to take advantage of the free
distribution mechanism of shareware,
but only on their own terms. Over
time, we’ve observed that they virtu¬
ally never succeed - more crippled by
their own tiny spirits than their soft¬
ware itself actually is.

The software is free of charge if you
use their service. The service is $8.00
per hour with a monthly minimum
charge of $9.95. This does NOT include
long distance fees. They do provide an
800 number at an ADDITIONAL $7.20
hourly non-prime and $10.80 per hour
prime time. It’s good work if you can
get it.

But the big problem with WinMail is
technical. The UUCP g protocol imple¬
mentation is just very poorly done. The
initial INITA/B/C handshake is almost
comical - perhaps even designed to
work mainly with their own online
service and poorly with others.
Received packets are limited to 64
bytes - traditional on 20-year-old UNIX
implementations where today’s focus is
on TCP/IP, but inexcusable in a newly
developed Windows product. And on
encountering errors, this program
comes completely unraveled. You will
need crystal clear lines to do much
with WinMail and then connections
are liable to be a bit unreliable.

There is also a CPU usage selection in
the setup program. Pick LOW. This is
how much of the CPU you want the
dialer to use. On a Gateway P5-90
Pentium machine, Windows simply
stops dead in its tracks on any of the
higher settings. I don’t know what this
program is doing in there, but it sure is
busy.

Despite our disappointment in the
actual communications ability of this

program, and the underlying financial
desperation of Computer Witchcraft,
the Windows interface to e-mail and
newsgroups is really quite well done.
With a bit of work on the UUCICO
dialer, this one could be a winner.
Computer Witchcraft, Inc., PO Box
4189, Louisville, KY 40204; (502)589-
6800 voice; (502)589-7300 fax;
Internet: help@win.net.

MKS INTERNET
ANYWHERE

Mortice Kern Systems, Inc. of Ontario
seem to be primarily focused on
bringing UNIX tools and utilities to
the DOS platform. For what reason,
we simply can’t fathom. But they have
released a commercial software
program titled MKS Internet
Anywhere at $149 that is very similar
in function to WinMail, in a pretty nice
package with documentation and a
slick install program.

MKS Internet Anywhere is an e-mail
and newsgroup reader for Windows.
Broadly speaking, the Windows inter¬
face to newsgroups and e-mail is again
just superb, and not notably different
from WinMail’s. Newsgroups and E-
Mail are actually in separate icons
rather than under the same one, but
feature for feature they look and feel
very similar - and very good. You CAN
have up to four DIFFERENT users
with different identities on the same
machine. Perhaps useful.

MKS has a slightly more adroit instal¬
lation program. We found a couple of
items to like about it. First, it actually
runs a search on your hardware, finds
all serial ports, then finds all serial
ports with modems, then detects what

speed they will support. It looked nice,
locked up once doing this trick, but
generally worked. It’s an interesting
step toward making a comm program
easier to install.

The system also supports multiple host
sites, each represented by an indi¬
vidual icon. Where WinMail’s UUCP g
protocol support was poor, MKS has
a superb implementation allowing
multiple window sizes, multiple block
sizes, and an excellent debugging
window to allow you to view precisely
what is going on to whatever detail (0
to 9) you like. You can log this debug
window to a file, and you can enter a
debug level for the host. UUCP actu¬
ally has provisions for allowing the
calling system to set a debug level for
the host. In this way, if you can get the
debug log from the host and compare it
to your local one, you can learn more
than you ever wanted to know about
UUCP g. Best, in actual performance,
this UUCP g was rock solid with good
transfer rates.

The scripts were even easier to set up
than in WinMail. A screen displays
sent strings on the left and expected
strings on the right and you fill it out
on the panel. We had our first connec¬
tion with this package in about 5
minutes.

The documentation consists of three
books: Getting Started, User Guide,
and Access Providers. They clearly
were an attempt to make Internet
simple for everyone. Unfortunately, it
isn’t all that simple, and the net result
was that with the exception of Access
Providers, they simply weren’t very
informative. There was very little tech¬
nical information about the file
formats or anything else. They were

Program Manager - (MKS Internet Anywhere]

Elle Options Window yelp

« 0 St . ♦ il ^ »

Control Center Mai Reader Mai Compose* Schedtie* Usess Internet First Tar* Release Notes Mews Reader News Poster No News Control

Anyvime Personafea&n
Hefc

60 Boardwatch - August 1994

In a perfect world, we’d love to take
parts of WinMail and combine them
with parts of MKS and do mail from the
Windows desktop. We can’t, and both of
these packages need a bit of work before
they will be useful tools for those who
don’t actually have a crying need for a
$1500 per month TCP/IP line, but
would like to do a few newsgroups and
e-mail from the comfort of their own
desktop. But the Windows interface was
so splendidly appealing, we’re hoping
they signal things to come from future
packages offering powerful mail capabil¬
ities for the Windows platform - without
the need for an expensive TCP/IP
connection. Mortice Kern Systems, Inc.,
35 King Street North, Waterloo,
Ontario Canada N2J 2W9; (519)884-
2551 voice; (519)884-8861 fax;
(519)884-2861 BBS; Internet:
inquiry@mks.com

currency from one denomination to
another. It is an excellent example of
how information can be presented inter¬
actively.

EDUPAGE NEWSLETTER

http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/edupage/edupage/

The Edupage newsletter is published
three times a week via email, gopher
and teh World Wide Web. It summa¬
rizes printed news coverage of interest
to leaders and citizens of the Internet.

THE PALEONTOLOGY SERVER
http://ucmp1.berkeley.edu/welcome.html

The University of California Museum of
Paleontology server is an interactive
natural history museum that is well
organized and makes use of large
graphics. You can learn about
phylogeny, the “Tree of Life”, or
examine photographs of Great White
Sharks off the California coast.

pretty, and readable, but not terribly
useful.

The Access Providers book WAS inter¬
esting. In fact, it’s a feature. The book
contains 136 pages of very detailed
contact and product information for
Internet UUCP account providers by
country and state with excellent
coverage of Canada and 30 other coun¬
tries. For example, you can get UUCP
accounts in the Ukraine at $5 per
month plus 10 cents per kilobyte for
International mail and a penny per kb
for local mail from the Crimea Commu¬
nication Centre (snail.crimea.ua). This is
the BEST collection of UUCP host
providers we’ve ever seen and a real
service to those buying the package and
looking for inexpensive connections.
There are even 12 pages of discount
coupons in the back from various
providers around the world.

The bad news is almost heartbreaking.
Where WinMail handled domain name
addressing splendidly, MKS inexplicably
doesn’t handle them at all. The docu¬
mentation talks about DNS quite a bit,
and you can enter an address easily
enough. But it transmits it in an
ancient bang path format long over¬
shadowed by domain name addresses.
In the default, even the FROM: address
in message headers is also a very local
bang path that will be meaningless to
any mail package on the other end that
tries to reply based on the message
header. Fortunately, you can configure
your local site for a domain name in the
“Control Center” to repair this oddity.
And all mail received from the host
must have the rmail statement in bang-
path format as well. Some hosts can do
that, and most don’t bother anymore.
Domain name service was rolled out in
1988 guys. This is 1994. Do a quick
calendar check up in Ontario and if it’s
the same year up there, haul out the old
FORTRAN WATV compiler and have
another go at this little faux pas.

The lack of DNS support in this
package severely hampers its utility.
You may be able to work this out with
your UUCP provider, or find one that
hasn’t changed their system in the past
six years, but the nature of the problem
is such that you can barely describe it
on the telephone if you KNOW what it
is, and as mentioned, the documenta¬
tion does little for you there. We found
their BBS uninhabited - about a dozen
callers in the past week talking about
YACC and LEX and so forth. The
package does provide 30 days free
product support.

O’REILLY’S GLOBAL
NETWORK NAVIGATOR
NAMES TWELVE BEST
DESTINATIONS ON THE
INTERNET

O’Reilly & Associates, Inc., has made a
name by publishing very niche books on
very technical subjects dear to the
UNIX community, and they’re widely
regarded as the best of their genre.
More recently they have ventured into
slightly more popular titles and scored
big with Ed Krol’s Whole Internet
User’s Guide and Catalog. They have
put up a World Wide Web site they call
the Global Network Navigator at
http://gnn.com. It provides links to some
650 selected Internet sites and has
become a popular index to the Internet -
they claim some 150,000 accesses per
week at the site.

In June, GNN recognized twelve of the
“best destinations on the Internet” with
an Editor’s choice award. This repre¬
sents a veritable busy kit of “what to do
with your Mosaic.”

ARTSERVE

http://rubens.anu.edu.au

Artserve is an arts history database
consisting of 2,800 images of prints
largely from the 15th century to the end
of the 19th century. It was developed by
Professor Michael Greenhalgh at
Australian National University.

THE CURRENCY CONVERTER

http://www.ora.com/cgi-bin/ora/currency

The currency converter, developed by
David Koblas, automatically converts

INTERNATIONAL TELETIMES

http://www.wimsey.com/teletimes.root/teltimes

_home_page.html

According to its writer’s guidelines, this
general interest magazine “seeks to
present information opinion and obser¬
vation drawn from the experience of
living in a particular place.” Editor-in-
Chief Ian Wojtowvicz is sixteen years
old.

INTERNET UNDERGROUND MUSIC
ARCHIVE

http://sunsite.unc.edu/ianc/

Developed by UC Santa Cruz students
Robert Lord and Jeff Patterson, the
Internet Underground Music Archive
intends to apply the principles of free
software to music distribution. Going
beyond the limits of what’s defined as
commercially viable, the Archive seeks
to promote obscure and unavailable
bands.

SCIENCE FICTION RESOURCE GUIDE

ftp://gandalf.rutgers.edu/pub/sfl/sf-

resource.guide.html

This guide organizes access to science
fiction-based books, movies television,
awards, trivia, conventions and more.
With the help of this resource you can
discover the nominees and winners of
the Hugo awards, explore Star Trek
trivia and more.

NEW ZEALAND INFORMATION

http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/mjw/

NZ/MainPage.html

Located at Carnegie-Mellon, this server
provides access to a wealth of informa¬
tion about New Zealand including
climate forecasts, speeches in the native
Maori language and descriptions of the

Boardwatch - August 1994 61

most ancient of all living reptiles, the
Tutara.

TAXING TIMES

http://www.scubed.com:8001/tax/tax.html

Presented as a public service by
Maxwell Labs, Taxing Times is a reposi¬
tory of tax forms including many IRS
publications online. On April 14 there
were 10,300 document accesses from
1100+ hosts.

US CENSUS INFORMATION SERVER

http://www.census.gov/

This self-proclaimed “Factfinder for the
Nation,” the Census Bureau’s server
organizes information such as financial
data on state and local governments
and schools, poverty in the U.S., and
housing changes.

HYPERTEXTED USENET FAQS

http://www.cis.ohio-

state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/FAQ-list.html

Organized by Thomas Pine of Ohio
State University, this server makes the
answers to frequently asked questions
(FAQs) about the Internet easy for
online users to find.

XEROX PARC MAP VIEWER
http://pubweb.parc.xerox.com/map

MapViewer is a fully interactive applica¬
tion that dynamically renders a map
based on user input. It allows people to
access geographic and demographic
information such as population, exact
location and region name.

PIPELINE TO THE INTERNET

by Brian Gallagher

Nightmares come in many forms. Some
wake you up in the middle of the night
with visions of ghoulish monsters
hanging around in your closet or under
your bed, some come in envelopes
labeled “bill,” and still others, perhaps
the nastiest of all come in trying to sort
out the TCP/IP, domain name, IP
address UNIX conundrum - simply
horrifying. There is however, a savior
for those wanting to see, and actually
use the Internet who aren’t well versed
in Latin, five or six Slavic languages
and UNIX; the Pipeline, in New York
City.

PIPELINE, is a company and a
Windows interface for the Internet. The
software gives users easy, intuitive
access to e-mail, (including the ability to
attach and retrieve any file connected to
an e-mail message), over 7,000 news-
groups, WWW, ftp, WAIS, telnet,
gopher, veronica and others.

The program installs to your system
under Windows and takes up a minimal
amount of disk space, about 1 and 1/2
megabytes. You need to register with
the pipeline to gain access, but once you
do the world of the Internet is open to
you - wide open.

For a demonstration of the system indi¬
viduals can call the pipeline offices at
(212)267-3636. They will send you a
demo-disk. The software allows users 15
minutes to browse the Internet viewing
whatever they like wherever they like,
but they will not be able to post any
messages or participate in the ongoings
of the largest networking conglomera¬
tion ever known. For those not local to
the pipeline offices (New York City), the
software will include a local Sprint

Uday Ivatury bridge aficioando

access number free of charge to demo
users.

When using the software it is really
hard to believe you’re actually on the
Internet, with everything written in
English pasted to a bright Windows
background the only clue that you’re
not in Kansas anymore is the slew of
international addresses that come
flashing across your screen - Iceland,
India, Norway, Nicaragua, Peru,
Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia...

Using veronica, under the “Services”
area from the main menu, typing in
“hubble” (all lower case, remember the
Internet is known to be rather case
sensitive), I found no less than 60 files,
pictures of various formats, and addi¬
tional lists from which to choose. If you
choose to download three hubble .gifs
simultaneously, the software doesn’t
mind if you multitask using Windows,
telnet somewhere else, ftp, chat, gopher
or what have you.

By clicking on the “NEWS” icon from
the main menu, users have over 7,000

Internet newsgroups at the point and
click of a cursor and mouse. Viewing
newsgroups, responding to the group or
to an individual, tagging a file along to
your response from your hard drive or
network is all done by point and click.
To assist in finding your way back to
your favorite newsgroups without
having to go through a slew of menus to
get there, a bookmark feature is a
nicety you wouldn’t want to be without.

The limits of this system are most likely
going to come from hardware - your
hardware, probably your modem.
Simply put, there is no limit to what
you can do, where you can do it, or for
all practical purposes how much of it
you can do all at the same time, but the
more of it you are doing the longer it is
going to take to get it done. What makes
this powerful interface tick is the
client/server set up of the PIPELINE
software.

All of the UNIX work is done at the
pipeline offices, with your machine
acting as nothing more than a terminal
to a larger system. It is what David
Holub, sysop and vice president of
“HOOKED,” a San Francisco Bay Area
company which has licensed the soft¬
ware, calls a “virtual SLIP connection.”
It isn’t a standard SLIP connection
because you don’t have TCP/IP stacks
installed and running on your end. This
lets the pipeline server do all the real
work and leaves hard drive space free to
perform other tasks.

Uday Ivatury, is the main programmer
for pipeline and also a very big player
on the Internet - bridge player that is.
Were it not for the game of bridge -
pipeline would likely never have existed.
Ivatury met author James Gleick at the
Manhattan bridge club in New York
through a friend of his who is also an
author. Gleick introduced Ivatury to the
Internet newsgroup rec.game.bridge,
which contains a FAQ on “ofcbridge” -
an aging but still adored bridge
program. For two months the two were
regular players of okbridge over the
‘net, with Gleick helping Ivatury in
navigating the Internet.

While both agreed that the Internet and
UNIX was more difficult than it should be,
it wasn’t until several days of Gleick’s e-
mail was lost because of an undocu¬
mented bug in an offline mail reader that
things started tunneling towards the
PIPELINE. With Gleick’s prodding, in
June of 1993 Ivatmy quit his day job as a
programmer, and began researching
Windows and UNIX, as his familiarity
with both was - well, non-existent.

62 Boardwatch - August 1994

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Ivatury, 32, was born in Waltair, India
and lived most of his life in Bombay. He
moved to the United States in 1978
when he was 17 years old and gradu¬
ated from the Polytechnic Institute of
New York with a degree in Computer
Science in 1981. After graduation,
Ivatury left New York to work for IBM
for the next five years. Missing his
friends in the Big Apple, Ivatury left
IBM in 1986 and moved back to New
York working for smaller computer
companies until a little over a year ago
when he left to start the PIPELINE
venture.

After two months of reading and
researching, Ivatury and Gleick settled
on writing the PIPELINE software in
Microsoft Visual Basic because, Ivatury
said, “It seemed to require much less
knowledge of Windows internals, and
Gleick promised to help me.” As far as
learning Windows and UNIX, Ivatury,
who thinks of programming as “putting
bricks together,” didn’t find it all that
difficult. “The bottom line is that when
push comes to shove a programming
language is a programming language,”
he said, “and an operating system is an
operating system.” As far as Windows
itself goes, Ivatury said, “I’m still not
sure that I like it all that much, it has
this nasty habit of crashing - but you
get used to it.”

Working tenaciously the pair went
online in November 1993, and now have
16 employees - all but three are bridge
players. Ivatury said he actively pursues
hiring bridge players as the game

requires a certain intelligence level and
is very team or project oriented making
them ideal employees for a company
such as his. He describes himself and
Gleick as fanatical bridge players who
travel to as many bridge tournaments
as possible, “This (bridge) is our life,”

he said,

“programming
is a way to get
there.”

The PIPELINE
offices currently
have six UNIX
SUN machines
on the public
network and an
equal number
for employees.

At one point
they were

running 1,000
people on a
single 56 kbps
leased line,

Ivatury said,
and today have
a T-l servicing the Internet and a frac¬
tional T-l for a Sprint Net connection.
At this time the service has over 100
modem lines, all 14.4kbps, and over
3,000 subscribers many who are from
Europe.

The reason for the wealth of European
subscribers Ivatury attributes to local
phone calls in Europe being exorbi¬
tantly expensive, and a lack of access to
the Internet in general. By using a
Sprint connection to the PIPELINE,
overseas onliners get the access they
want at a price they can afford.

Not quite overseas, but arguably as
foreign to New York as Singapore or
France, a version of the pipeline soft¬
ware is up and running on the west
coast too.

In San Francisco,
David Holub has
positioned himself to
utilize the pipeline
software to assist
perhaps 20,000
simultaneous users
by very, very care¬
fully choosing his
location. Location,
location, location.
His company,
HOOKED, is nestled
in a 750,000 square
foot office building,
with Teleport
Communications
Group, Bittel, GTE,
Metropolitan Fiber Services, Sprint,
Centex and other communication
conglomerates for neighbors. Directly
through the drywall in his office, he
said, is a 4ES Switch belonging to
Bittel’s Northern Telecom with 70,000
T-ls in it.

Holub, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
and a graduate of the University of
Wisconsin, Madison, with a degree in
political science and history, looked to
the Internet as a viable future after a
short stint in sales, a four and a half
year affair with commodities trading -
where he gleaned much of his initial
knowledge of computers, and another
sales position with Tangent Computers
where he worked with the networking
side of PC computers.

When he decided to play around the
Internet, Holub began a three month
period of reading, researching and
testing a UNIX machine he was putting
together. By June of 1993 he had it
running at a level he deemed accept¬
able. In working with UNIX he was
repeatedly frustrated by the complexity
of getting functional on the Internet,
this sent him looking for what turned
out to be PIPELINE, and he found
them the day they opened - November
31, 1993.

Open for business in April, HOOKED
now claims a rapidly expanding
subscriber base of 700. For the most
part technical support calls are largely
limited, over 90 percent, to giving
callers new initialization strings for
their modems. Currently hooked has 48
modem lines HOOKED to a U.S.
Robotics digital modem rack fed by two
T-ls, and they are looking to add more
lines in the near future. An additional
T-l is utilized for Internet bandwidth
running on two UNIX Pentium 66
machines with 48 MB RAM on one
machine and 32 MB RAM on the other,
connected to two Livingston terminal
servers and a Cisco router.

Boardwatch - August 1994 63

David Holub (far right) at Hooked

Holub described the PIPELINE inter¬
face as a “palette” to be developed and
customized on a whim. One of the
things he is doing is adding a list of all
BBSs that wish to be accessible through
HOOKED via telnet - if your board
qualifies, please contact him with the
informaiton. The HOOKED offices has
a staff of nine, but much of the
programming is done over the Internet
by programmers world wide, a benefit
Holub particularly enjoys. The most
popular area on his service are the
USENET newsgroups, “with out a
doubt,” he said, with over 80,000 daily
postings HOOKED collected a gigabyte
of news in just three days.

For those without a local number
through a service such as Sprint, the
system supports “rlogin” or “remote
log in” access through the Internet. If
you have access to a UNIX machine
which is rlogin capable you can use that
account to save on long distance calls by
using the Internet as your phone line.

To use rlogin, start the hooked
(pipeline) software and choose “Dialing
and modem set up” in the “Options”
scroll checking the box at the top of the
screen that says, “Dial another site and
then log in remotely,” then press “OK.”
From there go to the “Connect” option,
enter your hooked or pipeline password
and hit “OK” again. The system will
prompt you for the telephone number of
your Internet (rlogin) provider. Once
entered you will connect to your local
Internet site and do your normal log on

procedures using the hooked
terminal software.

While on your local service go to the
area of the board where you find a
UNIX prompt. At the UNIX
prompt type in “rlogin -8 -1 (user
name on HOOKED or PIPELINE)
remote.pipeline.com, or
get .hooked.net this should put you
through to the pipeline in New
York, or hooked in San Francisco.
(Note, “-1” in the preceding rlogin
address is a minus sign followed
by a lower case “L.”)

Users can telnet to either
service but, they will not be
able to use the pipeline soft¬
ware when doing so - they will
however, be able to ftp the soft¬
ware from the site, but a user
ID and password must be set
up with the respective company
before the software will be acti¬
vated on at their site. Telnet,
gopher, ftp addresses are
pipeline.com and hooked.com respec¬
tively.

The rates, at $20 per month for 20
hours, or $35 monthly for unlimited
time for the PIPELINE, and $22 per
month for 20 hours, or $35 monthly for
unlimited time for HOOKED, are a
much better deal than getting a SLIP
connection, but considerably more than
some BBSs out there. But, when you’ve
got the whole world at your fingertips
and it’s this easy to get to, many will
consider it a bargain.

For more information contact the
pipeline, voice: (212)-267-3636, to
download their software: (212)267-
8606, or write: The PIPELINE, 150
Broadway, Suite 1710, New York, NY
10038. HOOKED, to download their
software: (415)276-0150, login as
“download” with the password “ldown-
load.” voice: (415)281-6550, send e-
mail: staff@hooked.net, or write:
HOOKED, 185 Berry Street, Lobby 2,
Suite 6650, San Francisco, CA 94107.

IRC - 5000 Channels of
Global Chat

By Alan D. Bryant

Our friends in the federal and state
governments are tasked with spending
our hard-earned tax dollars on things of
importance. Things like breeding
special strains of tomatoes that make
better ketchup. Or studying the

breeding habits of Australian pygmy
rats. And of course we’re all familiar
with the toilet seats which cost you and
me $14 a piece at the local do-it-yourself
warehouse, and for which the govern¬
ment preferred to pay in excess of $150
each. To these venerable expenses I
happily add Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
Your tax dollars are at work here, and if
you’re smart, you’ll get involved before
they decide to spend the money on
something stupid and trivial, like
patching those potholes on the inter¬
state. Sound like more Clintonomics?
Well, the story’s not quite that grim . . .

What is IRC? Nothing short of a 24
hour a day international chat orgy. If
you’ve been witness only to BBS-based
chat, even nationwide BBS chat links,
you’ve only been playing in the minor
leagues of the chat world. Playing in
IRC is playing in the majors — this is
the real McCoy, the genuine article. A
place where 5,000 or more people
around the world are chatting with one
another in over 1,000 different chan¬
nels. Where you can be chatting in
multiple channels at once, sending a
GIF file of yourself privately to another
user, and having a private discussion
with still another user — ALL AT THE
SAME TIME. Sound like fun? It is, and
if you like to chat and haven’t seen IRC
yet, get with the program.

IRC has actually been available for
several years now, but has been acces¬
sible only to the privileged few with
direct Internet connections or shell
accounts on systems that do. The avail¬
ability of TCP/IP stacks and Internet
client suites on the Mac, and more
recently for PCs with Microsoft
Windows, coupled with the popularity of
shell accounts from sources like Delphi,
has caused rapid growth in the aware¬
ness and accessibility of IRC.

I first became acquainted with IRC
when I began playing around with
WINSOCK and Windows-based client
software following Jack Rickard’s
Boardwatch article about WINSOCK in
March of this year. WINSOCK, (itself a
standard for implementation and not a
program per se), forms the basis for
direct Internet connections in the
PC/Windows environment. Patterned
after the “sockets” concept, long a part
of the TCP/IP networking world,
WINSOCK brings a remarkable level of
accessibility to Windows users who are
fortunate enough to afford direct
connections to the Internet.

64 Boardwatch - August 1994

WINSOCK requires TCP/IP over
Ethernet, or in some implementations
(such as the Trumpet WINSOCK) a
SLIP account from an Internet
provider. Both of these types of connec¬
tions are outside the reach of the
average user, even today. Few people
are likely to have a TCP/IP LAN in
their home, and with prices averaging
$250 a month for a SLIP connection,
few people are likely to justify such an
expense for casual chatting.

Like many people you find on IRC, I got
my access “free” (to me, anyway) from
my employer, eSoft (makers of TBBS).
While in development on our upcoming
Internet Protocol Adapter (IPAD), I
managed to coerce my boss (Phil
Becker) into letting me use one of our
test lab phone lines to connect to the
IPAD at the office via SLIP. Phil
setup a SLIP account for me in the
IPAD, I connected the phone line,
and it was ready to run. All done
with the understanding that I was
doing important research for the
IPAD project, my motives shifted
dramatically once I discovered IRC.

Back at home, I ftp’d the Trumpet
WINSOCK and a few clients using
the Internet shell acount I have
through Colorado SuperNet. Once
installed and connected with my
SLIP account to the IPAD at eSoft
(which all went pretty smoothly
given Jack’s March article on the
subject) I was able to ftp files
directly to my own hard drive,
bypassing the usual “ftp-then-down-
load” I was familiar with on my
shell account. Once I could do that,
and use my own Archie client right
from Windows, I tracked down
several additional clients — including
the IRC client, WSIRC, a shareware
client written by Caesar Samsi, an
Indonesian expatriate who enjoys
Windows programming.

Installing and running the IRC client
was the beginning of a downhill slide
into lost productivity. Although I
resisted playing with it at work, it
became increasingly difficult to get
anything done at night or on the week¬
ends.

IRC itself is like one enormous chat
system. At any given moment, there are
over 1,000 channels, each purportedly
on a different topic, available to IRC
users. You can obtain a complete listing
on demand, and join any channel you

wish. All the channels have names —
eight characters long (or shorter) in
most cases, although they can be much
longer. Many channels have descrip¬
tions as well, although most don’t (it’s
up to the channel operator-more on that
in a moment).

If there doesn’t seem to be a suitable
channel available (unlikely, given that
there are always over 1,000 to pick
from) you can create you own on-the-
fly, simply by joining a channel that
doesn’t exist and provide a new name
for it. When you do this, you become
channel operator, and can kick people
out of your channel at will, or lock-out
other from joining in. You can also give
others in your channel “ops” status, so
they can enjoy the same super-user
privileges over that channel too.

This brings up an interesting concept
common with IRC — hots. That’s short
for robots, which as the name suggests
are robotic users. You don’t always
know who the hots are (except that
they’re almost always channel ops).
Their purpose is straightforward
enough, that being to sit in a channel
and keep it from going away. As long as
people are in a channel, it can’t go
away, and because bots can sit there
forever, you begin to notice channels
that are always available, making them
permanent fixtures that are analogous
to the sysop-defined channels you might
find on a BBS.

Bots have other interesting characteris¬
tics, too. Sometimes they “talk” to you,
but more often you’ll find bots that

make channel announcements. For
example, some bots give brief personal
profile information when a particular
user enters the channel. That informa¬
tion is supplied to the bot by the user in
question using the private message
command in IRC. Once set, every time
the user enters the channel, the bot
sends a message to everyone in the
channel with the stored profile info.

When you’re in IRC, you set a nickname
(usually called a “nick”) of your liking,
eight characters or less. There is no
permanent storage of nicks; they’re
yours only as long as your IRC session
lasts. Once you logout, someone else can
login with the same nick. Most people
endeavor to be creative when selecting
nicks to reduce the possibility that
someone else will parade around as
them, but there’s nothing
inherent to IRC to prohibit it.
You are also free to change nicks
on the fly in chat.

The appeal of IRC is difficult to
explain. Part of it is that techno¬
logically, it’s chat at a whole new
level. To begin with, because of
the design of IRC itself, TCP/IP
networking in general, and the
IRC Windows client, it is possible
to participate in as many
different chat discussions as you
can manage. Simply join the
channel(s) you want to partici¬
pate in. Samsi’s Windows client
for IRC just pops open another
window on the screen, each with
three panels: one that shows all
the chat discussion, one small
area where you type in what you
want to say, and a third that lists
the users in that channel. Just
click to change windows to type some¬
thing into a different channel.

Private chat is handled the same way;
each private chat you may have going
has its own window. This can get a little
exciting when you’re joined into two
public channels and talking privately to
two or three others at the same time.

One of the most appealing aspects of
IRC is CTCP — the client to client
protocol. CTCP is a collection of
features that let you do nifty things
between two clients (i.e., you and
another IRC user, wherever on the
planet they may reside). IRC traffic is
normally carried through an elaborate
network of IRC servers, most of which
reside on college campuses. But CTCP

Boardwatch - August 1994 65

transactions take place from client to client, using the
Internet network, but bypassing the IRC servers. Although
you can chat privately in IRC (which goes through servers)
you can also chat privately via CTCP (called DCC chat, for
direct client to client).

But the really neat part is DCC send — a mechanism that
lets you send a binary file directly to another IRC user’s
machine. When you start a send, the recipient can choose to
accept or decline your transfer request. If accepted, the file
transfer starts, all while you continue to chat with everyone.
In many channels on IRC, the DCC send function is used to
exchange user GIF files. “Wanna know what I look like?” A
yes answer, and off starts another DCC send.

Finally, being able to chat in multiple windows with an IRC
client, while transferring a file with an ftp client, and telnet-
ting to a system with another client, all at the same time, all
on the same machine, and all using the same single Internet
connection is a pretty overwhelming “cool burst” of connec¬
tivity excitement. A dial-up SLIP line has an upper data
capacity limit, of course, but a 14.4 or 28.8 bps SLIP connec¬
tion can handle a fairly good volume of traffic. People have
been wanting multisession capabilities with BBSs for some
time, such as downloading a file in the background while
entering e-mail. While BBSs haven’t quite arrived there yet
en masse, using WINSOCK and a suite of Windows based
Internet clients fulfills that need today via the Internet.

The only down side to IRC is the type of traffic that moves
through it, and the complete lack of controls to prevent
either the traffic or access to it. Some of the channels on IRC
are adult in nature, and even in the ones that aren’t, people
are free to use whatever language they want. Although I’m
not personally offended by any of it, it does concern me that
the underage set can access IRC and all its channels
(including the adult ones) as easily as anyone else. All they
need is direct Internet access, through a shell account or
direct connections, and they’re in. Some channels are “invita¬
tion only” by the choice of the channel op, which does impose
some controls. But these days, the world is an inherently
unsafe place for our children — “parental guidance
suggested” — and in that regard, IRC is no different than
any other entertainment or media source.

Despite the wide range of traffic you’ll find on IRC, the vast
majority of it is rather tame, and all of it is wonderfully
enjoyable for the “chat interested” among us.

The other rather interesting concept about IRC is that our
tax dollars and tuition funds are what’s paying for this chat
free-for-all. IRC servers, which are used to pass all the IRC
traffic, are located primarily at university computing centers
around the world. My advice is to join in and have fun —
your tax dollars are paying for it, you may as well use it.

Trumpet Winsock, Peter Tattam, Trumpet Software Interna¬
tional, GPO Box 1649, Hobart, Tas, Australia, 7001, 61-002-
487049 Fax. (Available as WINSOCK.ZIP from ftp sites.)
WSIRC Windows IRC Client, Caesar M. Samsi,
72030.562@compuserve.com E-mail. (Available as WSIRC13A.ZIP
from ftp sites.)

[Editor’s note: Alan D. Biyant is a contributor to Boardwatch, and
author of the book Creating Successful Bulletin Board Systems,
published byAddison-Wesley, ISBN0-201-62668-3.]

IRC SERVER LIST

Like most chat systems, IRC has a set of commands you enter to invoke partic¬
ular functions, such as private messages and channel lists. Some IRC
commands are sent to the server for action, while others are processed by the
client you’re running. Client commands vary; server commands are standard¬
ized. All are entered the same way within IRC; you simply begin the line with a
forward slash, followed by the command verb and any applicable parameters.

Before trying to use IRC, you should learn about the server commands avail¬
able. There are tutorial and primer files available via ftp from cs.bu.edu. The
tutorial.* files (three total) you’ll find there offer a great introduction to IRC and
its command set.

When you run your own client, such as Samsi’s WSIRC, you’ll need to configure
it to connect to a specific IRC server. (Clients on interactive accounts from
sources such as Netcom and CSN are generally pre-configured to attach to an
appropriate server.) Some IRC servers are available only to authorized users,
while others are public. Below is a list of IRC servers — some private, some
public. You may not be able to use all the servers listed here. This list is main¬
tained by Chuck Kane, ckane@ece.uiuc.edu, and is posted regularly to the
alt.irc newsgroup, and is available via ftp from h.ece.uiuc.edu as /irc/servers.*,
where the * is the year, month and day the list was produced. IRC servers are
added and dropped with some regularity, so this list may not be 100% accurate
when you’re reading it.

The list is sorted by country. United States IRC servers are at the end of this list
by state. The two columns show the server name, and the name of the site
where the server is located.

Israel

birisc.cs.biu.ac.il

irc.tau.ac.il

irc.technion.ac.il

Bar-llan University

Tel-Aviv University

Technion, Haifa

Japan

dec504.aist-nara.ac.jp

wsclark.huie.hokudai.ac.jp

hemp.imel.kyoto-u.ac.jp

totto.ics.kula.kyoto-u.ac.jp

scorpio.cse.kyutech.ac.jp

akiu.gw.tohoku.ac.jp

mamiko. is.s. u-tokyo.ac.jp

irc.ube-c.ac.jp

mentai. Hakozaki. karrn .ad .jp

endo.wide.ad.jp

hamlet.wg.omron.co.jp

omrongw.wg.omron.co.jp

scslwide.sony.co.jp

biscuit.mmws.astem.or.jp

choshi.kaba.or.jp

wings.tokai-ic.or.jp

NAra Institute of Science and Technology
Hokkaido University.Sapporo

Kyoto University

Faculty of Human Studies, Kyoto

Kyushu Institute of Tech., IIZUKA

Tohoku University

Tokyo

Dept of Computer Science, Ube College

KARRN Hakozaki NOC

WIDE-NOC of Fujisawa

OMRON Corporation, Kyoto

Sony Computer Science Laboratory, Inc.

Kyoto

KABA, Kyoto

TRENDY YAMAZATO-NOC, Nagoya

Singapore

solar.cc.nus.sg

The “FINE FINE” Country

Australia

aquarius.cssc-woll.tansu.com.au

yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au

edna.cc.swin.edu.au

yamabico.cs. uow.edu .au

rabble.uow.edu.au

irchat.utas.edu.au

notjules.itd.uts.edu.au

fox-in.socs.uts.edu.au

gwen.st.nepean.uws.edu.au

kay.st.nepean.uws.edu.au

jello.qabc.uq.oz.au

Telecom Australia Server

Monash University [The Biggest In OZI]
Swinburne University of Technology

Uni. of Wollongong

University of Tasmania

Finally a 2.8* version that works

As if sbug didnt have enough problems

An AT Standalone
a machine which struts

University of Queensland

Austria

uni-linz.ac.at

itc.univie.ac.at

olymp.wu-wien.ac.at

Johannes Kepler University Linz

Alma mater Rudolphina

Vienna

Belgium

OtHelLo.UIB.aC.Be

is1.bfu.vub.ac.be

Ecole Polytechnique (ULB-Bruxelles)

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Croatia

smile.srce.hr

University Computing Centre Zagreb

Czech Republic

irc.praha.cz

Praga Caput Regni

Denmark

alk.iesd.auc.dk

Aalborg University, IESD

Estonia

marvin.cc.ttu.ee

Tallinn University Computer Science Dep.

Finland

irc.eunet.fi

serifos.helsinki.fi

irc.cs.hut.fi

irc.freenet.hut.fi

cs.jyu.fi

mopo.cc.lut.fi

irc.otol.fi

rieska.oulu.fi

tolsun.oulu.fi

irc.ttl.fi

irc.cc.tut.fi

vehka.cs.uta.fi

polaris.utu.fi

brando.uwasa.fi

EUnet

University of Helsinki

Helsinki University of Technology

Freenet

University of Jyvaskyla

Lappeenranta University of Technology

Oulu Institute of Technology

Unixverstas Olutensin, Finlandia Vodka
Unixverstas Olutensin, Finlandia Vodka

Turku Telephone Company, Turku

TUT Computer Centre

University of Tampere

University of Turku

University of Vaasa

66 Boardwatch - August 1994

France

cnam.cnam.fr

Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers

Illinois

irc.ecn.bgu.edu

Board Of Governors, Educational

Dafne. Mines. U-Nancy.FR

Ecole des Mines de Nancy

Computing

Germany

irc.acns.nwu.edu

irc.uiuc.edu

Northwestern University, Evanston

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

fu-berlin.de

TU-Muenchen.DE

Freie Universitaet Berlin

TU Muenchen

Indiana

Uni-Erlangen.DE

The ‘Berch'-Server

lrc.lndiana.Edu

Indiana University Primary IRC Server

Uni-KL.DE

Kaiserslautern University

copper.ucs.indiana.edu

Indiana University Primary IRC Server

Uni-Paderborn.DE

University of Paderborn

Uni-Rostock.DE

Rostock

Iowa

uni-stuttgart.de

Stuttgart University

irc.iastate.edu

Iowa State Alternate Reality Server

Hungary

darmol.elte.hu

Eotvos University of Budapest

Kansas

irc.ksu.edu

Kansas State University

Latvia

kristin.cclu.lv

Latvian IRC Server

Kentucky

irc-host.ms.uky.edu

The Hole in the Rock Server Univ. of KY

The Netherlands

irc.sci.kun.nl

Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Maryland

irc.digex.net

Digital Express Group

svbs01.bs.win.tue.nl

Norway

Technical University of Eindhoven

Massachusetts

world.std.com

The World @ Software Tool & Die

alf.uib.no

Universitas Bergensis, Ordinateurus Centre

berry.cs.brandeis.edu

Brandeis University IRC Server

mimir.ifi.uio.no

Universitas Osloensis

csa.bu.edu

Boston University, Boston

irc.cs.uit.no

University of Tromsoe

csz.bu.edu

Boston University CS SCI 000 server

irc.nvg.unit.no

Nettverksgruppa - Universitas Nidrosiensis

husc10.harvard.edu

If we're up, then all is well ;>

Poland

AGH Krakow

Warsaw University, Warsaw

irc.mit.edu

wpi.wpi.edu

MIT Project Athena

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

galaxy.uci.agh.edu.pl

irc.fuw.edu.pl

Michigan

ruby.poz.edu.pl

Technical University of Poznan

hobbes.kzoo.edu

Kalamazoo College

coyote.cs.wmich.edu

WMU, Kalamazoo

irc.demos.su

DEMOS/* Russian IRC-Server

Minnesota

irc.tc.umn.edu

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

irc.tuzvo.sk

TU Zvolen

Missouri

Slovenia

sluaxa.slu.edu

St. Louis University

irc.arnes.si

Fastest growing userbase in Europe!

New Jersey

Spain

hertz.njit.edu

Computing Services Department,Newark

El Primer Servidor de Espana

pilot.njin.net

Rutgers Univeristy New Brunswick

pleione.cc.upv.es

Sweden

New York

azure.acsu.buffalo.edu

University at Buffalo, Buffalo

gwaihir.dd.chalmers.se

Chalmers Tekniska Lekskola, Glteborg

red-dwarf.cit.cornell.edu

The CIT IRC

Saturnus.pt.hk-r.se

SoftCenter, Ronneby

mcphyO.med.nyu.edu

The Mid-Manhattan Link

irc.nada.kth.se

Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

colossus.cs.rpi.edu

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute IRC Server

krynn.efd.lth.se

Lund Institute of Technology

mothra.syr.edu

Syracuse University

Switzerland

disuns2.epfl.ch

Swiss Fed Inst of Tech of Lausanne

North Carolina

hobbes.catt.ncsu.edu

North Carolina IRC Server

firewall.epfl.ch

irc.ethz.ch

Swiss Fed. Inst, of tech of Lausanne

Swiss Fed Inst of Tech of Zurich

Ohio

ircserv.imp.ch

Improware AG, Fuellinsdorf

slc9.ins.cwru.edu

CWRU IRC Server

cuisund.unige.ch

United Kingdom

University of Geneva

Oklahoma

lincoln.ecn.uoknor.edu

SOONER HUB SERVER

serv.eng.abdn.ac.uk

shrug.dur.ac.uk

University of Aberdeen

University of Durham

Oregon

stork.doc.ic.ac.uk

Dept of Computing, Imperial Coll., London

irc.csos.orst.edu

The Beaver Server of The Northwest

cent1.lancs.ac.uk

supercomputer.swan.ac.uk

NONE

Swansea University Computer Society

Pennsylvania

fennel.compnews.co.uk

PressNet Hub

irc.lm.com

Telerama IRC Server

dismayl.demon.co.uk

Demon Internet, London

irc.duq.edu

Duquesne University, Pittsburgh

Canada

McGill University, Computing Centre

Memorial University of Newfoundland

irc.pitt.edu

chestnut.chem.upenn.edu

University of Pittsburgh

University of Pennsylvania QUANYIN

sifon.cc.mcgill.ca

arlene.cs.mun.ca

Texas

elk.nstn.ca

NSTN’s Atlantic Canadian IRC Server

irc.bga.com

Real/Time Communications, Austin

irc.polymtl.ca

Montreal Polyserver

irc.metronet.com

Texas Metronet Inc.

io.org

Internex Online

hermes.oc.com

OpenConnect Systems

Mexico

ra.oc.com

OpenConnect Systems Server, Dallas

acme.etsu.edu

The Magical Realms Server

hp9k.lag.itesm.mx

The Tutifruti Server, ITESM Laguna

irc.tamu.edu

Texas A&M University IRC server

nextOO.mty.itesm.mx

ITESM Campus Monterrey, Mexico Hub

omega.tamu.edu

Da’ Maroon Lagoon of Aggieland!

risc6k.sin.itesm.mx

ITESM Campus Sinaloa

dewey.cc.utexas.edu

UT’s “1 Repeat Class” server

irc.pue.udlap.mx

Universidad de Las Americas, Puebla

weiss.che. utexas.edu

University of Texas at Austin Leaf Server

Chile

UNIRED

El primer ire-server de SUDAMERICA

Utah

hamblin.math.byu.edu

Brigham Young University Math Dept

Alaska

merlin.acf-lab.alaska.edu

The “Patrick has a Glue Dream" Alaskan

Virginia

beta.cs.jmu.edu

James Madison University CS Dept.

Server

muselab.ac.runet.edu

Radford University

California

poe.acc.Virginia.EDU

University of Virginia

nova.unix.portal.com

The pothole in the information super-

Washington

highway

irc.eskimo.com

Eskimo North. Located in Seattle

harp.aix.calpoly.edu

The SLOer than you server...

alfredl .u.washington.edu

U of W IRC Server - Fish are cool, huh.

B-w6yx.stanford.edu

Stanford Client server No.1

C-w6yx.stanford.edu

Stanford Client server No.2

Washington, D.C.

w6yx.stanford.edu

From DC to Daylight

eff.org

Electronic Frontier Foundation, G. St, D.C

othello.ucdavis.edu

University of California, Davis

ucsd.edu

Colorado

irc.Colorado.EDU

Florida

excalibur.mlb.semi.harris.com

irc.math.ufl.edu

Univ of Calif San Diego

Univ of Colorado Server

Warlord Server, Melbourne

The Happiest Server on IRC

Board watch - August 1994 67

THE REAL-LIFE
ADVENTURES OF THE
INTERNET TWINS

TRACKING THE WILD ZINE

by Harley Hahn and Wendy Murdock

E ine. We love that word. Feel it, as it
^starts in the middle of your mouth
and just rolls slowly off the front of your
tongue. Zine, zine, zine... No doubt
about it. Zines are cool, unique crea¬
tures of the 90s, the beginning of the
new frontier. We believe zines to be so
important in so many unexpected ways
as to deserve to be considered as a
brand new form of creation — one that
has flourished only in the last year or
so. As we ponder the nature and
success of zines, we are led to some
fascinating and remarkable observa¬
tions: First, that it is impossible to
create “cool,”no matter how much
money you spend. Second, that the
current neo-conservative theory, in
which the profit motive is the best ethic
upon which to base our economic and
social system, is just plain wrong. And
finally, that although zines are created
all over the world, the underlying
concept is very American and takes us
back to the myths of the Old West.
Now, more than ever, zines show us
why America needs cowboys. So, what
then is a zine?

THE NAME “ZINE”

The name “zine” was derived from the
term “fanzine,” a type of small maga¬
zine published for fans of particular
areas of the underground culture.
There have been fanzines devoted to
music groups, cult writers, science

fiction genres, and so on. The name
fanzine, of course, is an abbreviation for
“fan magazine.” Traditional fanzines
are printed on paper, and are often no
more than a few photocopied pages.
Within recent years, the fanzine has
evolved into the zine: a small, single¬
purpose publication. Most zines are
written and produced by one fanatical
person (or, at most, a small group of
fanatics). A typical zine is esoteric to
the max, appealing to a well-defined
subset of humanity. Most printed zines
are either free or sold for a very low
price (say, a dollar). Indeed, many zine
publishers care more about being read
than about making money, and will
send you a zine for free if you send
them a self-addressed stamped enve¬
lope. So much for ancient history.
With the popularity of the Internet, we
now have a whole new class of publica¬
tions. Although we refer to them as
“zines”, they are really a brand new
type of creation. The new zines are
designed to be distributed and read
electronically. Unlike their counter¬
parts (printed on paper), today’s zines
can be readily distributed around the
world in hours. Moreover, using the
vast resources of the Internet, a zine
publisher can reach out effectively to
those few people who are interested in
any esoteric topic, no matter where they
happen to live. At first, the new zines
were simply electronic versions of the
older, printed ones. (In fact, some
people used to refer to such early publi¬
cations as “e-zines”.) However, it was
not long before people started using the
unique features of the Net and elec¬
tronic text to create publications that
designed specifically for the Internet
and its users. Thus, for our purposes,
we can define a “zine” as a small, elec¬
tronic publication, devoted to a single
topic, published by one person (or at
most, a few people), and distributed for
free over the Internet. (Note: The term
e-zine is now obsolete; the correct term
is zine. If you want, you can still talk
about e-zines, but you will be branding
yourself as being hopelessly atavistic.)

THE LAW OF COOL

In a moment we will discuss the hows
and whys of reading zines but first, let
us reflect on the name just a little
longer. The name zine is the last
syllable of magazine (or fanzine if you
wish). In this way, the name zine
reminds us of two similar names:
droids and toons. (The word “droid” is
the last syllable of “android”, and
“toon” is the last syllable of “cartoon”.
These two neologisms are both movie
terms: from Star Wars and from Roger

Rabbit respectively.) It is interesting to
ask, why are zines cool (as you will see
when you start to read them), but
droids and toons are not? The words
droid and toon did not become popular
on their own. Rather, the people
marketing these movies tried their best
to make these new words cool in an
attempt to promote the movies (and to
make more money), but it didn’t work.
No one goes around talking about
droids or toons, but people DO talk
about zines. Personally, we think that
this is great. No matter how much the
men and women in suits try to change
our culture to earn a few more bucks,
they cannot create coolness where it
does not exist. The Law of Cool says
that a great idea will become cool by
itself or not at all. And that is what
happened with zines.

READING A ZINE

Why would you want to read a zine?
Well, why would you want to use the
Internet in the first place? Aside from
the obvious reasons — reading jokes,
and finding out about sexual experi¬
ences that you will never get near in
real life — we generally use the
Internet to plug ourselves into a global
community consisting of millions of
people. The variety of zines available
today is so vast as to be beyond the
understanding of a single human being.

Simply put, zines offer you a chance to
read stuff that you would never
encounter, anywhere else in your life.
For example, in your everyday, non-
Internet life, are you likely to happen
upon a magazine named “Cult of the
Dead Cow”, or a short but pithy publi¬
cation named “Holy Temple of Mass
Consumption”? On the Net, these
zines, and many more, are available for
free, whenever you want.

So, how do you find zines? They are
published using the well-known distrib¬
ution systems of the Internet. Many
zines are posted to Usenet newsgroups,
the most important such newsgroup
being alt.zines. You can also download
zines via anonymous ftp, find them
using a gopher or the web, or subscribe
to zines distributed via a mailing list.
In the resources section at the end of
this article, we will show you specific
places to find zines. When you find one
you like, all you have to do is download
it (or subscribe to it), and read it in the
usual manner. Most zines are regular
ASCII text that you can read with your
favorite paging program or text editor.
However, a few zines are published in
Postscript, which will require a special

68 Boardwatch - August 1994

viewer program to read or a Postscript
printer if you want a hard copy. In
recent months, we have begun to see a
number of zines published via the web.
Such zines are rendered in the web’s
lingua franca: HTML (hypertext
markup language). To read these
zines, you will have to use your favorite
web browsers (such as Mosaic or Lynx).
If a zine contains graphics as well as
text, you will have to use a graphical
browser (such as Mosaic and not Lynx)
to appreciate the full impact of the
layout and artistry.

PUBLISHING YOUR OWN ZINE

Once you start reading zines, you may
begin to think about publishing your
own. Good. Zines are cool, and the
world supply of cool has seriously
diminished since Alice Cooper decided
to go on Hollywood Squares. So here
are some hints as to how to go about
starting your very own zine: Publishing
a regularly-scheduled zine is a lot more
work than you might think. Unless
you have experience and a lot of time,
you will find it difficult to come out
with more than two or three issues a
year. This is especially true if you
intend to do a lot of editing and keep
close control over the quality of your
articles. One important point to
remember is that all writers (even
famous Internet writers) tend to miss
deadlines, and that counting on other
people to submit articles on time is a
good way to grow old fast.

Before you even start planning your
zine there are three things that you
should do. First, check out the master
list of zines that already exist
(described in the Resources section,
later in this article). Before you start
your own zine, it is a good idea to see
what other people are doing in related
areas and to ascertain what is already
available. Next, download and read a
variety of zines. The more you read,
the more ideas you will get and the less
chance that you will start your zine
career by making a once-in-a-lifetime-
stupid-mistake (such as trying to start
yet another zine covering popular
music). The nature of zines is that
they are more fun — and more
successful — when you write about
subjects that you understand intimately
and that are of interest to a well-
defined, focused group. For example, if
you live in Southern California (like
Harley), you might start a zine devoted
to a discussion of why so many Califor¬
nians are good looking, smart and
athletic. If you are from, say, Arkansas
(like someone whose name we won’t

mention), you could write about cow¬
tipping techniques and the best way to
fry tator tots in bacon grease. The next
step is to start reading the appropriate
Usenet discussion groups. For
example, if you want to start a zine
about obscure sexual practices, reading
the relevant Usenet groups will orient
you to people’s likes and dislikes. In
addition, you will encounter the abbre¬
viations and expressions that are in
common use, and you will develop a
feeling for which important niches are
as yet unfilled. Best of all, if your boss
(or mother, or significant other) asks
why you spend so much time reading
articles about spanking and horses, you
can explain that you are working on
legitimate research for your zine. Some
zine publishers opt to write the entire
zine themselves (such as Jack Rickard
did when he first founded this maga¬
zine). Some publishers use other
people’s work as well as their own
(such as Jack Rickard did when he
started to go crazy from writing the
entire magazine by himself). If you
want to solicit submissions, start by
posting a note to alt.zines. The note
should be short and to the point.

Briefly describe your zine (title,
contents, schedule) and your submis¬
sion guidelines. Explain what types of
articles are you looking for: What size
should they be? Do you have any
special formatting requirements? A
word of advice: No matter how hot to
trot you may be, do not post your first
solicitation until you have read the
alt.zines group for a while. This will
allow you to see how the zine world
works and will give you a chance to pick
up some ideas from other people.
When you do post your first such
article, make it clear that you are
starting a NEW publication and looking
for submissions. Otherwise, you will
have people sending you requests for a
zine that does not yet exist. Once you
have announced your zine and asked for
submissions, wait for a week or so and
see what requests you get. If you get a
fair response from alt.zines, you can
assume that there is at least some
interest in what you are doing. If you
still need more submissions for your
first issue, the next step is to post a
similar request for articles in other,
relevant discussion groups. For
example, if your zine is about cooking,
this would be the time to ask for
submissions from the Usenet cooking
and recipe groups. Again, remember to
word your request carefully: do not
announce that the zine is available until
you are ready to send it out. The
reason that you should post first to

alt.zines and wait a while before posting
elsewhere, is to give the fanatics of the
zine world a chance to comment on your
proposed publication, as they may have
important suggestions. The comments
you receive can save you a lot of
misguided effort. For example, you may
discover that another person is
publishing their own zine on exactly
the same topic. Not that you can’t
publish a similar zine as well; it’s just
that it pays to know what is out there
before you spend your time duplicating
someone else’s work.

Hint for soliciting
material for a zine:

It is easy to get people to contribute
poetry to a zine. One request will
usually result in enough poetry to
supply the Peruvian army for a year.
It is not so easy to get good poetry.

Once you have the articles for your
zine, you must put them in the form of
a file that can be easily transported
around the Internet. As we
mentioned, most zines use plain ASCII
text. Although some zines use Post¬
script of HTML (web language), we
suggest that you stick to plain ASCII.
This will ensure the largest possible
audience for your zine. Designing and
laying out a zine in an attractive format
will take a little practice. We suggest
that you study other people’s zines to
get ideas. As a general principle, keep
it simple. Remember, most people
will be reading your zine on a screen
that will show them 24 lines of text at
a time, each line being no longer than
80 characters. Please resist the temp¬
tation to get fancy. If you study
various zines, you will notice that they
change through time, evolving towards
a style that best fits the zine and its
contents. Make it easy for people to
read what you have to say, or they
may decide not to bother at all. For
example, always include a Table of
Contents at the beginning of the zine
so people can decide, straight off,
which articles they want to read. And
to make it simple for your readers to
find the articles, preface each one with
a unique pattern that they can search
for, such as (-1-),(-2-), and so on.
Again, look to other established zines
for ideas.

DISTRIBUTING YOUR ZINE

At the same time you are planning your
first zine issue and soliciting and
editing contributions, you should also

Boardwatch - August 1994 69

dark chaos zine cover, dc-covl.gif, by carrie mcninch

Cover of Dark Chaos - Zine
be thinking about how to distribute
your zine. Here are your choices:
Generally speaking, you can divide all
the distribution methods into two
categories: e-mail and everything else.
The advantage of using e-mail is that
anyone who can receive mail from the
Net can get your zine. For example,
many deprived people on the commer¬
cial services can receive mail from the
Net but have no easy way to read
Usenet groups or to access a gopher or
a web server. The disadvantage to
using e-mail is that you must main¬
tain a mailing list. If you decide to
publish a small, controlled circulation
zine, you can keep an exclusive list of
e-mail addresses and mail each new
edition of the zine to everyone on the
list. Unless your list grows too large,
this will be okay. However, if you
plan to make your zine available to
anyone, you will find that main¬
taining even a medium-sized mailing
list by hand is more time-consuming
than you would guess. If you decide to
use e-mail and make your zine avail¬
able to the public, we suggest that
you use some type of mailing list soft¬
ware, such as Listserv, Majordomo or
Listproc. The easiest way to use such
software is to ask your system
manager whether or not your system
already has such a facility. If so, ask
nicely if you may be allowed to add a
mailing list to the collection. If your
system does not have such software,
you can (if you are nerd) track down
and install a mailing list package on
your own. However, you will likely
find that this is not worth the trouble
and that you are better off using one
of the alternate methods described
below. In any case, we suggest that
you do NOT pay a commercial
provider for a mailing list service
(unless it is inexpensive). If you do,
please ensure that your provider will
not be siphoning off the e-mail

addresses and using them for
commercial purposes. There have
been companies of dubious morality
who have advertised on the Net that
they will set up any mailing list free.
Just remember that nothing will
cause you to incur the wrath of your
readers faster than to be responsible
for them receiving unsolicited junk
mail. As we mentioned earlier (and as
we describe in more detail in the
Resources section of this article),
many zines are available via ftp, the
gopher and the web. The easiest way
to distribute your zine is to find an
ftp, gopher or web site to carry it.
Find the person responsible for main¬
taining your favorite site and send
them mail asking if they will carry
your zine. For ftp sites, you will
usually see the name of the system
manager when you log in. For gopher
and web services, look for items that
offer information about that partic¬
ular site.

ADVERTISING YOUR ZINE

After arranging for the distribution
for your new zine, you can begin to
think about advertising to build up
your audience. The first thing to do
is to decide whether or not you even
want to advertise. Some people want
their zines to be small and private.
However, if you are like most people,
you will want your zine to be as
widely read as possible. One good way
to attract readers is to post a message
to the appropriate Usenet discussion
groups or to the relevant forums on
your favorite BBS. However, please
resist the temptation to start a large,
international advertising campaign.
The best Zines find their audience
through word of mouth. Start small
and grow slowly. If you do decide to
advertise, be aware that it is consid¬
ered bad manners to post an
announcement to the same group
more than once a week. Another good
place to advertise your zine is in your
.signature and your .plan files. The
.signature file contains information
(called a sig) that will be appended to
the end of each letter that you send
out by email, and to each Usenet
article that you post. If you use your
sig for advertising, please keep it
short: no more than four lines for the
whole sig. The .plan file is displayed
whenever people finger you. It is
acceptable to make your .plan file as
large and as creative as you wish. For
this reason, many people put all the
information about their zine in their
.plan file and, in their sig, mention the
zine and tell people to finger them for

more details. One last idea: If you
hang out on IRC and participate in
channels devoted to the same topic as
your zine, you might want to
announce that you have a zine and tell
people how to get it. Of course, you
should not make such announcements
too often or you will just irritate
people. One idea is to keep a copy of
the current issue of your zine handy
and, when someone wants it, to use
DCC (direct client to client protocol)
to send it to them immediately.

PROFIT IS NOT EVERYTHING OR
WHY AMERICA NEEDS
COWBOYS

What with the fall of Communism-as-
we-know-it and the rise of such
contemporary philosophers as Rush
Limbaugh, it has become fashionable
to assert that — like it or not — our
economy and our society thrives when
the profit motive is strong. But, the
more we study the Internet and the
world of zines, the more we reflect
that this belief is far too simplistic.
True, one can point to socialist states
who have bitten the biscuit, or to
parts of our government that operate
inefficiently, and come to the conclu¬
sion that what is best in humanity
will flourish only when there is a
chance for right-minded people to
make money. However, such argu¬
ments ignore the miracle of the Net
and such enterprises as zines. The
contemporary idea that people will not
be motivated to excellence unless
they stand to make money is just not
true. There are many tens of zines
available for free on the Net, and each
of these zines is created and distrib¬
uted by people who make no money
at all from their efforts. For the most
part, each zine serves a small,
focussed community that in no way
could support a for-profit magazine.
What is new about all of this is the
Net itself. For the first time in
human history, people can create
anything they want and then reach
out, all over the world, to find those
people who are interested in that
particular product. The early
publishers of printed zines had prob¬
lems in that it was difficult to
distribute their work and to find an
audience. Now, the Net affords
anyone an opportunity to share their
creations with people all over the
world. We believe that this is one of
the reasons why the Net itself is
becoming the largest single influence
in the culture of mankind, and that
the creation of these first few zines
augurs a new global culture based on
creativity and sharing. All of which

70 Boardwatch - August 1994

reminds us of the early days of the
American West: the days in which
men and women worked hard to open
a new frontier and took what they
could by the sweat of their brow and
by independent efforts to break new
ground. True, the stories of the
American West contain much myth.
However, the image of the cowboy is
an enduring one and is an important
part of the American tradition. A
cowboy is not afraid to blaze an
unknown trail or to explore confusing
and difficult territories. It has become

far too common for people to depend
upon the largess and initiative of
others. For example, how many
people expect to earn a living by
looking for a job in an enterprise that
someone else has started? And how
many people spend most of their time
doing what someone else tells them to
do? This is not to say that we can all
be captains of industry or creators of
new artistic movements. Rather,
what we are saying is that for a
society to flourish, it needs a certain
number of people who will follow

their own vision. And today, we are
just as much in need of creative, inde¬
pendent people who will work hard to
follow a dream as was America from
1850 to 1890, when the cowboys
opened and explored the new frontier.
We believe that, amid the mind-
numbing influences of late twentieth
century mass media and mass culture,
we still need cowboys, perhaps more
than ever. And today, you will find
them on the Net. Zines are just the
beginning.

RESOURCES

Zines are distributed via all the standard Net
modalities. In order of popularity (with
respect to zines) these resources are: ftp,
the gopher, the web, Usenet and mailing
lists. If you want to see which zines are
publicly available, there are two large lists
that you can download. The first is main¬
tained by John Labovitz; the second by
Heath Bunting. The Labovitz list is available
in several ways. First, you can ftp it from
rtfm.mit.edu. The directory is:/pub/usenet/
news.answers/writing/ zines he list is long
enough to be divided into two files, called
parti and part2. You can also access this
list by gopher at The Well. Use the
command: gopher gopher.well.sf.caus

From the main menu, choose the following
selections (in this order): Authors, Books,
Periodicals, Zines Online Zines Comprehen¬
sive List of Ezines Within the Online Zines
menu, you can also access many actual
zines. An alternate gopher site for this same
list is at the University of Michigan. Use the
command: gopher etext. archive.umich.edu

From the main menu, choose: Zines e-zine-
list The Heath list is available via the web.

Point your browser at:
http://www.3W.com/ 3W/ezines.html If

you start your own zine and you want it
publicized, be sure to send each of these
people the relevant information so they can
add your zine to their lists. The email
addresses to which to send information are
given at the beginning of the lists. Before we
continue with more resources, we would like
to digress for a moment to show you some
examples of how you can use simple Unix
commands to extract useful information from
such long lists. For our example, we will use
the two-part Labovitz list. When you down¬
load this list, you will notice that both parts
are in a particular format. After the explana¬
tory text at the beginning, there are a large
number of entries, each one describing a
single zine. Each entry starts with the name
of a zine at the beginning of a line, and each
name begins with a capital letter. In addition,
under the name, all the information is
indented. Thus, you can make a summary
of the zine titles by searching all the lines
that start with a capital letter. Here is how to
do it (using Unix): This particular list is so
large as to come in two parts. When you

download these two files they will be named
parti and part2. Save each part to a tempo¬
rary files. For example: cp parti tempi cp
part2 temp2 Now, use vi (or your favorite
text editor) to get rid of all the information at
the beginning and the end of each of the
files, leaving only the zine descriptions.
Next, use the cat command to combine the
two files into one large master list: cat
tempi temp2 > zine-list This new file zine-
iist contains only zine descriptions and
nothing else. You can now use the egrep
program to find all the lines that begin with a
capital letter, egrep ‘ A [A-Z]’ zine-list I more
This particular command will pipe the output
of egrep to more — a paging program — so
you can read the output one screenful at a
time. If you want to count the number of
zines in the list, pipe the output to wc using
the -I (line count) option: egrep ‘ A [A-Z)’ zine-
list I wc -I When we did this, we found that
the list contained 103 different zines. If you
want a keep a list of all the zine titles, you
can redirect the output of egrep to a file. For
example: egrep ‘ A [A-Z]’ zine-list > zine-titles
The file zine-titles now contains all the titles,
one per line. When you are finished, you can
remove the temporary files: rm tempi temp2
You can also remove the original files if you
do not want any of the extra information that
comes with them: rm parti part2 You now
have a master list of zine descriptions (zine-
list) and a master list of zine titles (zine-
titles) with which to impress your friends.
The lists that we mentioned will show you
where to access the actual zines. In most
cases, there is an ftp or gopher site and,
sometimes, an e-mail address to which you
can send a request. If you want to browse,
there are a number of well-maintained places
on the Net from which you can down load
and access zines. Here are the names of
two Gopher sites that carry a healthy

selection of zines: etext.archive.umich.edu
from the main menu, choose: Zines
gopher.well.sf.ca.us from the main menu,
choose: Authors, Books, Periodicals, Zines
Online Zines If you know exactly what you
want, an ftp site can be a lot faster than
a gopher. Here are a few to try:
etext.archive.umich.edu look in: /pub/ Zines
ftp.cic.net look in: /pub/e-seriais/alphabetic
grind.isca.uiowa.edu look in: /info/journals
Note: This last site (the one at U. Iowa) has a
collection of zines that are full of information
that you are not supposed to know. Aside
from gopher and ftp sites, many zines are
posted regularly to Usenet newsgroups.
The best overall group to read if you are at

all interested in zines is alt.zines. Here, you
will find announcements about zines, solici¬
tations for submissions, and general discus¬
sion about all aspects of creating and distrib¬
uting a zine. For writing in general, you
might want to check out misc.writing; and for
magazines in general, rec.mag. Aside from
Usenet discussions, there are two mailing
lists that you might find interesting: zines-
l@uriacc.uri.edu (all about zines)
writers@vm1.nodak.edu (writing in
general) Both of these are Listserv lists. To
subscribe, send mail to the user name list¬
serv, at the specified address. For the body
of the message, include a single line
containing the word subscribe, followed by
the name of the list, followed by your first and
last name. To unsubscribe, send a
message to the same name and address.
The message should contain a single line
with the word unsubscribe, followed by the
name of the mailing list. For example, if your
name is Chuck Wagon and you want to
subscribe to the zines-l list, send mail to: list¬
serv® uriacc.uri.edu For the body of the
message, use the single line: subscribe
zines-l Chuck Wagon When you want to
send an article to the list, mail it to: zines-
l@uriacc.uri.edu To unsubscribe, send a
message once again to:
listserv@uriacc.uri.edu The body of the
message should be the single line: unsub¬
scribe zines-l As a final resource, we would
like to point you to a zine called “Voices from
the Net”, in which Harley Hahn was inter¬
viewed last year. To download this partic¬
ular issue of the zine (#1.3), use your
gopher to connect to the University of
Michigan site that we mentioned above:
gopher etext.archive .umich.edu from
the main menu, make the following choices:
Zines Voices voices-1.3 In this interview,
Harley discusses the importance of the Net
to human culture and expands upon some of
the basic ideas that we have mentioned in
this article.

[Harley Hahn is an internationally recognized
author, consultant and analyst. His books
include: The Internet Complete Reference,
The Internet Yellow Pages and a Student’s
Guide to UNIx.

Wendy Murdock is and artist, writer, and
Internet veteran specializing in creative art
forms including BBSs and MUDs.]

Boardwatch - August 1994 71

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Access To Government

DIGITIZED REGIONAL MAPS
FOR ALL

by Jim Warren

I t’s time to create digitized regional
base-maps for each of our geographic
communities, that can be freely shared
and used without limit, by individuals
and by an unrestricted range

SPEAK UP OR LOOSE OUT

I t’s beginning to happen, and BBS
sysops and BBS users better leap into
the infant organizational efforts, lest
they be shut out — or priced out — of
access to and use of such potent
computerized community information.

After asking your local public-agency
administrators (in Public Works and
Planning Departments, etc.) what, if
anything, is happening locally along
these lines, the initial places to leap-n-
shout are (1) brief statements-for-the-
naive during public-comment periods
before city council and county board
meetings, (2) letters to the editors of
local daily and weekly newspapers and
teevee stations — which could make use
of such shared base-maps, (3) vigorous
dialogue with fellow sysops in the area,
and (4) heads-up notices to all systems
users and online associates.

At this early stage, I have not seen any
organized opposition to low-cost or free
access or use (beware of per-use fees!).

But it is a “clear and present danger” as
eager for-profit private corporations and
fee-hungry public agencies begin orga¬
nizing to create and share such
geographic information in digital form.
When I asked about pricing and use
policies for such public information, at
an early-June organizational meeting
addressing this topic, the speakers
vigorously skidded around my repeated
queries with non-responses.Caveat
Citizen!

SILICON VALLEY’S
BASE-MAP

A pian for creating a shared base-map
has been proposed for Silicon Valley
at the south end of the San Francisco
Bay. Organization is being facilitated
by Smart Valley, a non-profit, member-
supported coalition of industry and
public groups. [Michael McRay, GIS
Project Manager, Smart Valley, Inc.,
1661 Page Mill Rd. #200, Palo Alto
CA 94304-1209; 415-843-2160;
michaelm@svi.org ]

More tenacious than a gopher [net-
nerd’s humor], BADGER is the Bay
Area Digital GEoResource, a shared
base-map project proposed by Lock¬
heed in a $3.5-million, 3-year funding
request to NASA’s HPCC — High
Performance Computing and Communi¬
cations. It’s one of about 400 funding
proposals submitted for HPCC’s Public
Use of Earth and Space Science Data
Over the Internet project. Although it’s
only one of 400 loot-seeking missives, it
has a potent collection of industry advo¬
cates and government contractors
behind it, and would seem likely to
receive funding. [Dr. Dave L. Milgram,
Principal Investigator, BADGER,
Lockeed Research Labs, Orgn. 96-10,
Bldg. 254-E, 3251 Hanover St., Palo
Alto CA 94304-1191; 415-424-2277;
milgram @stc.lockheed.com ]

Associated with BADGER and also coor¬
dinated by Milgram, BASIC is the Bay
Area Shared Information Consortium, a
start-up effort now under way to orga¬
nize those who are interested in such
shared geographic and other informa¬
tion.

SCC LINC is the Santa Clara County
Land Information Network Coopera¬
tive, another start-up of organizations
seeking to acquire and distribute South
Bay GIS information — geographic
information system. SCC LINC appears

to be oriented more to public-sector
information users, and is coordinating
its efforts with those of BASIC and
BADGER. [Don C. Wimberly, Special
Projects Manager, City of Mountain
View, 500 Castro St., Mountain View
CA 94039-7540; 415-903-6215.]

WHAT’S A BASE-MAP?

“base-map” is a map that individ-

..uals and organizations can use as a

base on which to build or add their own
information such as arbitrary drawings,
“what-if” sketches, temporary routes,
electronic map-pins, site data, neighbor¬
hood-association members’ homes,
customer information, etc. If it’s not
already included in the base-map,
others can add surveyors’ benchmark
locations, elevation information, fault
lines, sewers, drainage paths, utilities,
ISDN phone lines, bus stops, vegeta¬
tion, voters’ homes, subdivision maps
(existent and proposed/opposed), parcel
maps, soil and geological data, etc.

At a minimum, such public, shared
base-maps should include the key polit¬
ical-boundary information, e.g., city and
county boundaries, census-tract bound¬
aries, etc. These freely-shared base-
maps should also certainly include exact
state and federal highway traces, and
hopefully city and county roadways.

In the case of property subdivision
maps, certainly city and county Plan¬
ning Departments should by now be
requiring that developers submit their
mandated maps in both paper form and
in some sharable/importable, nonpropri¬
etary digital form — side-issues for
chat with your local planning director.

Requiring such digital submissions of
subdivision maps is essentially the same
as the Federal Elections Commission
and several states that are now consid¬
ering requirements that politicians’
campaign-finance disclosures be
submitted in digital form. Similarly,
various court systems are exploring the
possibility of requiring case-briefs and
other court documents to be filed in
computerized form — part of a future
“paperless judiciary.” Ahhh, but I
digress.

Public regional base-maps should also
include digitized visual-spectrum satel¬
lite shots and/or public-agency aerial
photos — periodically-updated as avail¬
able, because things change — that

74 Boardwatch - August 1994

overlay or can be overlayed by the
shared base-maps. If NASA wants to
charge for satellite photos that we’ve
already paid for by tax-bux, then
shared-map zealots should comparison-
shop with the Russian space agency.

At the same time, they may as well
comparison-shop the photo resolution
being offered by these competing
suppliers, e.g., the initial resolution
discussed in the BADGER presentation
was one-meter per pixel — and it’s well-
known that NASA and the Russians
have much better resolution than that.

And, the publicly-shared satellite photos
may as well include inages in the non¬
visual spectrum — infrared, etc. They
can better identify vegetation, insect
infestation, water resources, whales 50-
feet below the surface [another digres¬
sion], etc.

DOVETAIL DA DATA

O ne of the more serious potential
problems on the horizon is that the
folks in one region — perhaps one or
several counties or [Louisiana] parishes
in size — will decide to create a shared
base-map in one format, requiring one
set of software tools for its use. Then
one or several of the adjacent regions,
suffering from acute GIS envy or NIH
Syndrome (Not Invented Here), will
create all their base-map information in
an incompatible format, perhaps one
that requires entirely-different software
tools.

Thus, it would be difficult or perhaps
near-impossible to “marry” the base-
maps of adjacent regions to each other.
Stupid! — but certainly possible
between rival bureaucracies and
competing corporations-with-clout.

On the other hand, it is equally possible
— if not likely — that the first consor¬
tium stepping into this contorted quag¬
mire will do it dumb, and then adjacent
regions will have to either be incompat¬
ible with their neighboring region when
they do it better, or else must dumb-
down their efforts so as to be compat¬
ible with their neighbors’ misteaks [sic].
The best way — perhaps the only way
— to have your region avoid these
pitfalls is to make damned-sure you are
involved in the organizational and plan¬
ning processes from the beginning, at
least in those that involve your public
agencies, spending your taxes, where
you are supposed to have a voice.

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O ne of the major lessons we are
learning from other computerized
public records of government agencies is
the importance of assuring that they
are created and maintained in a way
that (1) permits straightforward export
of (2) all public information in (3) one
or more nonproprietary, generic
formats, that (4) can be used by more
than one vendor’s software tools and
most-assuredly does not require some
home-grown proprietary or mainframe
software in order for the public to use
copies of computerized public records.

USEFUL TO EVERYONE

L ow-cost and free digitized base-
maps will be of virtually unlimited
use to almost everyone. Just like “old-
fashioned” paper maps, they will even¬
tually be used by everyone who ever
uses a paper map, looks for a home or is
interested in what’s happening in their
neighborhood — whether the neighbor¬
hood is as small as one block, or as large
as the village called Earth.

And, shared base-maps provide virtually
unlimited possibilities for entrepre¬
neurial efforts via private-sector value-
added information and services.

Anything less virtually guarantees less
access, less utility and greater cost than
necessary — for the public and, in the
long term, for the public agency.

These four requirements should be
minimum components of any public-
agency bid-request for any agency
system that may be used to create,
collect or retain public information.

Like the tax-funded (excuse the vile
expression) public streets and highways,
freely-shared public base-maps are an
essential foundation for robust business
opportunities in the future, as well as
for personal use by citizens.

IT’S GOTTA BE “ FREE”

B ecause such base-maps are useful to
almost everyone, and are perhaps of

Board watch - August 1994 75

greatest value to almost-every local,
state and federal government agency,
their creation should be jointly funded
from the General Funds of towns,
cities, counties, states and the federal
government. As such, everyone’s
taxes will, appropriately, pay for them.

When everyone pays taxes for creating
these base-maps — and NASA photos
— copies should be available to anyone
for any use, priced at no more than the
incremental cost of copying. And if
the actual cost of copying (e.g., the cost
of downloading a copy from a base-
map file-server) exceeds the cost of
billing, collection and accounting for
the copying fee, then they should be
“free” — just like all those other facili¬
ties and services for which our taxes
are prepaid.

Access to such fundamental
geographic information about one’s
surroundings, in this powerfully-useful
digital form — especially from agen¬
cies that use public tax funds to create,
collect and retain such public informa¬
tion — should not be available only to
those who can afford profiteering
public-agency fees that far exceed the
costs of copying. We tax-payers have
already paid for it once.

(c) Jim Warren, 1994, may be copied-in-full
at any time, in any form, provided this
notice is included and no fee is charged for
the specific copy nor for a paper publication
of which it is a part.

Warren [345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA
94062; (415)851-7075; jwarren@well .com]
received the first-year Electronic Frontier
Foundation Pioneer Award, and more
recently the James Madison Freedom-of-
Information Award from the Society of
Professional Journalists - Northern Cali¬
fornia for helping to make government
information freely available online. He is
now pushing for similar access to
campaign-finance disclosures. He founded
InfoWorld and the Computers, Freedom &
Privacy conferences, was founding host of
PBS’ television’s “Computer Chronicles"
and founding Editor of Dr. Dobb’s Journal,
among other things.

He began working as a programmer in 1968
after ten years teaching mathematics, holds
three graduate degrees in computing and
mathematics and has taught computing
at various universities including Stan¬
ford.

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76 Boardwatch - August 1994

They couldn't top Synchronet.

Version 2.0

Synchronef v2.0 unveils PCMS, the
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Node license*

Synchronet

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mss

$799

PCBoard/fVl

$440

MajorBBS

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TBBS

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Programmable

Yes

Extra

Multiple command shells

Yes

Intelligent DigiBoard

Yes

Intl4n device support

Yes

Standard serial ports

Up to 10

Up to 4

Up to 2

Caller ID security

Yes

Extra

Nested security logic

Yes

Multichannel chat

Yes

Extra

Yes

Private user chat

Yes

Extra

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Offline reader support

Yes

Extra

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QWK networking

Yes

Extra

Yes

FidoNet import/export

Yes

PostLink (RIME) support

Yes

Extra

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Includes RIPscrip menus

Yes

Novell/DOS LAN support

Yes

Enhanced CD-ROM support Yes

Yes

Incoming FAX support

Yes

Ghat between doors

Yes

Bidirectional file transfers

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DOS door support

11 types

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extra

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Features and prices compiled from vendor supplied information 2/94, are subject to change without notification. WildcatffM, PCBoard/M, MajorBBS, TBBS, QWK, FidoNet,
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Education Link

by Bill Gram-Reefer

THE RAIN MODEL

Tf you’re overwhelmed
JLby the possibilities of
maximizing the Internet
and computer technology
and communications for
education purposes
and don’t know how
to do it, check this
out. Don’t be a
lone wolf, build
relationships,
collaborate,
invite your
friends and
colleagues to
create a crit¬
ical mass that
can provide the energy and resources you
need to make something good (and
real) happen.

For instance, the Regional Alliance for
Information Networking (RAIN), based in
Santa Barbara, California, is a leader in
developing self-sustaining regional
networks and in providing online
resources for educators. An independent,
non-profit agency that serves Santa
Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura
counties, RAIN provides online resources,
conferences, workshops, publications and
seminars that further public under¬
standing of, and access to, advanced inter¬
networking technologies. It sees itself as
an off-ramp from the information super-
duper highway, providing a variety of far-
reaching and challenging activities for
students, teachers, and businesses.

In addition to its regional activities
(below), RAIN hosts three information
exchange vehicles on the Internet that
serve users nationwide: the National
Community Networking List
(COMUNET), a U.S. non-profit list for
public service inquiries and recommenda¬
tions, and the National Information
Center for Regional Nil On ramp Devel¬
opment (NIC), founded in 1994 to assist
regional level networking development
plans, and to support local initiatives that
provide alternatives to commercial
services. The NIC includes a discussion
list, and is building a virtual library of
information resources and serves as a
Gopher and World Wide Web (WWW)
gateway.

RAIN’s international activity, in associa¬
tion with the National Science Founda¬
tion and UNESCO, includes the interna¬
tional development of a Pacific Rim
Network bridging education and
economic development resources across

78 Boardwatch - August 1994

the Pacific Basin. The Central Network is
planned to be established in Costa Rica,
with regional hubs in California, Ecuador,
Peru, New Zealand, Australia, South East
Asia, China, Japan, Canada, and Hawaii.
Services to governments include a County
Tax Information BBS, a multiple county
Law Library, a City Public Information
Service, County Council, access to City
Attorney and Superior Court Resources, a
bi-lingual City Council BBS, and a
Regional development center. Addi¬
tionally, serving statewide interests,
RAIN operates the Cal Net discussion
list, while a new archive project hopes to
pull together National and California
League of Cities resources.

,In addition to its education
resources, RAIN works with
students on a variety of special projects,
publishes the Kids News Net, a student
newspaper published electronically on the
Internet, and sponsors a two-month
summer camp, Camp Internet. Library
services include the development of an
electronic library and virtual reference
center, and its T-l line provides host
access for the Tri-County Black Gold
Library Cooperative, the Westmont
College Library, and is affiliated with the
T.I.E. Library Cooperative. RAIN also
provides Internet services and legal
resources training for Central Southern
California Law Libraries, and is collabo¬
rating with other groups to develop an
online professional network to serve most
of Southern California.

RAIN also serves as an on-ramp for indi¬
vidual network subscribers who are a
welcome part of RAIN’s electronic mix of
users. It provides full Internet access for
personal use for $10/month ($15 for fami¬
lies). Users can take advantage of e-mail,
telnet, FTP, Gopher, WWW, Lynx,
Archie, Veronica, Usenet discussion
groups, and IRC services. National access
is available for $4/hr.

Its conferences include the annual June
conference on building the virtual class¬
room and workplace, which emphasizes
applications for advanced networking
technologies that exist now in offices and
classrooms. Teachers learn to use
computer networking to access global
resources that include international
education projects and remote space
exploration through virtual reality telep¬
resence technologies. The virtual office
track is geared for executives and
managers interested in improving the
work environment with creative and flex¬
ible non-geographic offices that can meet
corporate and customer needs via a
remote connection.

RAIN has also formed an alliance with
several educational institutions in its
regional area to coordinate two important
education programs: The Pacific Rim
Science Education Center, and the Global
Mathematics Gateway Program. The
RAIN Virtual Classroom Partnership
includes: the Remote Access Astronomy
Project, the South Coast Mathematics
Partnership, Tri-County and South Coast
Science Projects, a Western Commercial
Space Center, The Space Shuttle Get¬
away, and Western Space Museum and
Science Center, and many other projects.
The programs include teacher training,
summer session workshops, participation
in VR, curriculum delivery, mid-winter
retreats, and the annual conference
described above.

RAIN’s members include over 25 colleges,
universities, county and city govern¬
ments, school districts, museums, and
institutes. Corporate sponsors include
Sun Microsystems, Rockwell, U.S.
Robotics, Telebit, Wells Fargo Bank, Red
Lion Resorts, to name just a few, and
manufacturers working with RAIN
include ResNova, Cisco Systems,
Livingston, and Apple Computer. While
RAIN provides an impressive menu of
services and programs, it is most impor¬
tant, right now, as a model for other
regions around this country and the
world.

The regional network concept with a
foundation in a wide-scope educational
mission, as demonstrated by RAIN,
coupled with successful collaboration with
surrounding institutions, government
agencies, and corporate sponsors is the
best model I’ve seen so far that provides
the scalability and the resources needed
to create a sustainable and expandable
infrastructure that makes room for all the
other public community services touted
by those who would try to build the model
from unsustainable community-based
nets. In fact, if we just voted this
November to dismantle every State Board
of Education and replace them with
regional-based organizations like RAIN,
there would be no stopping the revolu¬
tion.

RAIN Network, Timothy Tydall, Network
Director, P.O. Box 2683 Santa Barbara, CA
93120; (805) 899-8610 voice; (805) 568-2299
fax; rain@rain.org internet.

Bill Gram-Reefer, based in Concord, CA, is
president of WORLDVIEW, specializing in
connectivity and communications. E-mail Bill

at: reefer@netcom.com

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Macintosh News

by Bill Gram-Reefer

PUBLIC ADDRESS AGAIN

T he computer industry press throws
so much bull at its subscribers that
some times it’s just too hard to keep up
with it all, or know when things have
changed and how quickly. Two cases in
point:

Eric Hoffman, manager of the
Computer Store at the University of
Chicago wrote a nice letter recently,
“Dear Bill, I just ad your Mac section
in the June edition of Boardwatch. In
question three of “Stump the Chump,”
Suchit Nanda inquires about Offline
mail readers for the Mac. I’ve uploaded
the last three versions of “Alice” to
both the umich Mac archive and
sumex-aim. Alice is now at v2.4b2.
This version adds support for the
popular “BlueWave” format, simplifies
the configuration of a Macintosh Point
setup when using the freeware
FidoNet mailer “Charon”, and retains
the ability to handle .XRS and .QWK
packets as well. Aside for needing a
more current manual, Alice does a nice
job of connecting Macs to Fido systems
for $15. I tried to mail Suchit a uuen-
coded attachment containing the latest
version of Alice but had no luck
reaching his site.

“I have an idea for an article which I
would like to see you write. There is a
newcomer to the field of Mac BBS
contenders - “Public Address”. Public
Address is reminiscent of Hermes but

is notable in that it currently supports
connections over the Internet and, for
a meager $80, the author will give you
source code as well as additional
example modules with which you can
roll your own enhancements. Colen
Garoutte-Carson is the author of
Public Address. Colen currently
provides tech support for Symantec’s
programming language products (boy,
must he be busy!).

“In answer [to] Jack Rickard’s reply to
a reader: Yes, I’m sure you could take
a PowerBook (not the 100!) equipped
with MacTCP and a copy of Public
Address and turn your setup into an
Internet accessible BBS!

“Obtaining Public Address can prove
to be difficult: either you must call a
handful of PA boards, or you must use
gopher to connect to
ccsgopher.uchicago.edu, or ftp to reach
capstan.cis.yale.edu. PA boards that I
know of include Colen’s - 503-485-
7781, and a board in Xenia, Ohio - 513-
376-1287. There are currently a few
PA bulletin board systems up on the
Internet. You may wish to contact Milo
Sharp at FXMCS@ACAD3.ALASKA .EDU
for more information on his board.
Milo has, within the space of about two
weeks, set up a PA board on the net,
written his own custom module which
allows you to finger online users, and
drawn up a good description of what
PA has to offer for James Barry’s “Mac
BBS FAQ.’

Even though I run a GUI based board,

I am impressed with the clean layout,
modularity, and performance of Public
Address. Given the bad feelings
evidenced towards Hermes on the part
of some Hermes developers and sysops
in comp.sys.mac.comm and the low price
of Public Address, I would expect to
see more BBS sysops opt for PA in the
near future. In any case, I hope you
have the chance to look into Public
Address in a future column.”

Eric Continues, “Here is an excerpt
from Milo’s description of Public
Address: ‘Public Address is a new
modular bulletin board system,
currently being authored by Colen
Garoutte-Carson. It is in late beta
stages, the most recent version being
0.9b9 rev A. The basic setup is reminis¬
cent in some ways of both Hermes and
Hermes’ obvious antecedent, WWIV.
However, Public Address supports
some features Hermes lacks.

“The most obvious new feature is inte¬
grated TCP/IP support. Public Address
(often referred to simply as PA) offers
you the choice of serial port connec¬
tions (through the modem or printer
port, or any CommToolBox-registered
port), ADSP connections, or TCP/IP
socket connections. Each are easily
added, work flawlessly, and can be
customized with automatic opening
and closing times. PA v0.9b9 rev A
comes with only telnet support, but the
author has made plans to add other
common TCP/IP protocols, such as
SMTP, FTP, and NNTP. Version
0.9bl0 (due out in a few short days
from this writing) will also include
modules to allow users to telnet out
from a PA site, and also to dial out
using any spare modem lines.

“Another important aspect of Public
Address is its modularity, which makes
it easy to customize or enhance your
bulletin board. Each function of the
BBS itself is a separate module, which
can be linked or unlinked with your
system as you desire. You can also
create chains, which execute several
different modules sequentially. While
PA comes with a standard suite of
modules, including messaging, email,
and transfers, it’s a simple job to write
your own, if you are familiar with
Pascal, C, or C+ + . The author also
makes available documentation and
module skeletons for sysops to add
their own feature.

“Modules can take advantage of the
network links in PA by using IMC -
Inter Module Communications. IMC
allows modules to call each other,
transmit information between the two,
and maintain network links, which
allows module programmers to easily
create multi-user modules, whether
they’re games, chatting modules, or
networked file transfer modules.

“For the future, Garoutte-Carson has a
GUI implementation planned, as the
foundation is already laid in PA. In
fact, the Public Address program itself,
sans all the modules, is a very nice
terminal program, with support for
TCP, ADSP, and serial connections; X,
Y, and ZMODEM transfers; and both
TTY and ANSI (16-color) emulation.
Sysops have two methods of doling out
access: either by a security level, which
can range anywhere from 1 - 1000, or
by 42 different ‘flags,’ each of which
can be named and assigned to users
independently of the others. This
allows sysops a wide range of privi-

80 Boardwatch - August 1994

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leges, and also provides for an easy way
to lock individual users out of certain
features.”

My response to Eric is thanks for the
info about the new rev of Alice and for
all your efforts to get the program to
India. As for Public Address, please
refer to the October 1992 (!) edition of
Boardwatch where this column
previewed Public Address and high¬
lighted the background of its origins
and authors.

Let’s see, this is the summer of 1994,
and from your letter and comments I’ve
seen working their way across the mac-
based news groups, it appears that
Public Address is, indeed, finally
emerging from a state of development
into a beta or almost alpha stage. If I’m
wrong, the authors are welcome to
correct my ignorance at the e-mail
address below. So, after almost two
years, no one can accuse this writer of
refusing to write about vaporware
within these august pages (no pun
intended).

Milo’s point about the modularity of
Public Address is well taken, and is
implemented to some large degree by
Spider Island Software’s TeleFinder, as
well, in that the node manager, user
manager, caller log are actually sepa¬
rate programs working in tandem and
make for easier updates and additions
of more nodes rather than re-writing
the entire package in between major
updates. Also ResNova, in the way it
supports “externals,”— a curious term
from the DOS side of BBSing, I suspect
— speaks to these design concerns as
well. As for the support of TCP/IP, the
effort of PA is laudable, for, after all,
AOCE is the future on the Apple plat¬
form, isn’t it?

But, I’m wondering how Colen et. al.
will address the issue when they finally
get their GUI act together and iron out
the inner workings of the client-side.
For instance, in last month’s column, I
surveyed FirstClass, ResNova, and
Spider Island in their progress toward
building a host that can support
internet connectivity, and not just
ASCII telnet but full GUI. It appears
that it is better (please hum the stan¬
dard “ease-of-use” mantra) to have the
user (client) have that interface built-in
in some way, so it’s not a separate piece
that has to be installed, configured and
reset, situations providing ample oppor¬
tunity for users to get lost and turn-off.
So we’ll see.

As it stands, the ResNova implementa¬
tion is the most complete on the client
side of a GUI where you select Mac TCP
as the connection method. With Spider
Island, you use a version of its NetCon-
nect tweaked for TCP. As such,
NetConnect is still a separate piece and

Spider Island promises to have it inte¬
grated into the client and available in
its TeleFinder Pro shareware terminal
emulation package as well, probably by
the time you read this. As for SoftArc,
the VersaTerm TCP tool is used and
configured for use with the FirstClass
client. Representatives from SoftArc
admit this is not ideal and are working
on their own integration scheme.

Finally, as Jack’s ignorance concerning
the capabilities of any Apple product is
the stuff of legend, yes there are now at
least four ways to run an Internet-
connected BBS off a portable Mac,
NovaLink, TeleFinder, FirstClass, and
another hearty welcome to Public
Address.

PA boards Eric Hoffman knows of
include Colen’s (503) 485-7781, and a
board in Xenia, Ohio (513) 376-1287.
There are currently a few PA bulletin
board systems up on the Internet. You
may wish to contact Milo Sharp at
FXMCS@ACAD3.ALASKA.EDU for more
information on his board. ResNova Soft¬
ware, 5011 Argosy Drive #13, Hunt¬
ington Beach, CA 92649; (714) 379-9000
(voice); (714) 379-9014 (fax); (714) 379-
9004 or resnova.com (Nova Central
BBS). Spider Island Software, 4790
Irvine Boulevard, #105-347, Irvine, CA
93720; (714) 669-9260 (voice); (714)
669-1383 (fax); (714) 730-5785 or
spiderisland.com (BBS). SoftArc Inc.,
805 Middlefield Road, Suite 102, Scar¬
borough, Ontario Canada M1V-2T9;
(416) 299-4723 (voice); (416) 754-1856
(fax); (714) 609-2250 (FirstClass BBS).
Synergy Software, 2457 Perkiomen
Avenue, Reading, PA 19606; (215) 779-
0522 (voice); (215) 370-0548 (fax);
maxwell @sales.synergy.com (internet).

AEOLUS UPDATE

Then, in the March 94 issue, this space
covered the debut of Aeolus, a mail
tosser for Macintosh published by
Delphic Software. At the time, this was
a welcome announcement coming on
the heels of the demise of Tabby in
November 1993. Well, what do you
know, but Delphic has come up with the
Aeolus Pro series, a group of customized
versions of Aeolus that interface
directly with the host BBS module!
Special versions of Aeolus are preset
and packaged for various Mac BBS
systems and setups. First to see the
light of day will be Aeolus Pro/HII, a
Hermes II external with complete setup
capabilities from an external; Aeolus
Pro/FC, a FirstClass gateway applica¬
tion with FREQ’ing and Crashmail
capabilities from a Database Extension;
and Aeolus Pro/SS, a single program
that runs in an event chain and
imports/exports directly to/from the
Second Sight message files. For this
version, according to Mike Marshburn,
president of Aeolus, an online setup

configuration utility is planned, but will
not be released with the first version.

According to Marshburn, “Aeolus
Pro/HII is a “Hermes II External” that
does all of the FidoNet mail processing,
and calls FI and Ziplt by AppleEvents.
No more mysterious Tabby files, no
more hidden configuration options, all
of it is accessible from the Aeolus Setup
interface! Furthermore, for BBS
systems with an external capabilities,
the Sysop can reconfigure the entire
system from online! Essentially, we
have put the entire Aeolus Setup inter¬
face online for access from an external
on any and all BBS systems that
support externals! We have excluded
absolutely no one in our development
efforts and will have a version of Aeolus
Pro released that is customized for each
Mac BBS system!

“Perhaps the biggest new feature in
Aeolus Pro is the HFnS(tm) FidoNet
standard created by Massimo Senna
(creator of Formula 1—ed.) and myself.
The Hierarchical FidoNet Standard is a
revolutionary new way of handling
FidoNet mail that destroys all remnants
of the Tabby way of handling files.
Furthermore, HFnS increases reliability
by ensuring that packets are never lost,
mail always gets to the other node, and
ensures that Aeolus Pro can toss the
mail as soon as it has been transferred!
Plus, Aeolus Pro does direct packet-to-
BBS importing of messages, where
MacKennel must first put the messages
into an RFC-822 or Generic file before
transfer to the BBS.”

Pricing for Aeolus Pro is the same as for
the previous package $65, with a $15
upgrade/trade-in rebate from any
Macintosh mailer/tosser system,
including Tabby and MacKennel! (any
version). Some of the standard features
include: unlimited number of routes,
events, areas, and points; fast mail
tossing; an easy-to-use setup utility
with help balloons and friendly dialog
boxes; complete manual that covers all
aspects of FidoNet, the process of
setting up the Formulal(required)
mailer, Ziplt(tm), and Aeolus; support
for Host-Routing, Routed NetMail, and
NetMail Masking; conversion of an
entire Tabby setup over to Aeolus;
built-in area management (like
AreaFix/Trix) via AreaMan; an unlim¬
ited number of origin lines can be
defined, with one randomly chosen for
every outgoing message; rapid
processing of all files thanks to the
Delphic Software B-SLAM(tm) and
HS/BFA(tm) technologies; plus lots
more, like the ability to process
messages while the BBS is running.

Upgrades to Aeolus Pro are FREE for
all owners of Aeolus vl.x. If you want to
be ready for the newest wave of Macin¬
tosh FidoNet mail processing, consider

82 Boardwatch - August 1994

Aeolus Pro.Delphic Software, ATTN:
Aeolus, PO Box 7604, Redlands, CA
92375-0604; Delphic Software
(909)792-4902 FirstClass BBS;
Delphic_Software@delphic.com Internet;
Delphic Sw AOL; Delphic Sw eWorld.

USING e WORLD

by Bill Gram-Reefer

O.K., so let’s get the obvious compar¬
ison out of the way: for about a second
you think you actually were able to log
onto AOL. That out of the way,
e.World, Apple’s new online service for
Macintosh users, provides more zip
and panache with a rich and inter¬
esting sense of place, and, according to
one analyst, works better on a big
screen than AOL.

Being a new service, there are lots of
places to explore: eMail Center, Busi¬
ness and Finance Plaza, Info Booth,
Computer Center, Arts & Leisure
Pavilion, Community Center, News¬
stand, and Learning Center. You’ll
find it real easy to browse, which
speaks of the navigability the AOS
group built into the system. Yet, as
e.World has only recently launched
after a wide beta program, there are
many areas still under construction or
just coming online. So it will be fun to
be there at the start and watch it
evolve and see how users interact with
the system. Writing this first column
in April, prior to the launch, there
were still many areas under construc¬
tion and announcements for the July
time frame concerning upcoming
events that you readers might want to
know about were nonexistent. So for
lack of “news” and a two month lead
time, I plan to explore e.World and
write about it from a users’ stand¬
point, highlighting its different

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One of the more useful places you’ll
find in e.World, and one you’ll check
into regularly is the eMail Center.
Providing more than the bare essen¬
tials, e.World’s eMail center presents a
simple and easy-to-use interface and
functionality that you shouldn’t have
any problems with. Here there are
clickable folders that contain your read
and unread mail, mail you’ve saved.
One of the interesting features of
e.World is that if while rummaging
through some other area of the service
you decide to select a file for down¬
loading, you have the option of post¬

poning the download until a later time
so you can rummage some more before
being interupted by the transfer. You
can keep track of these files in another
folder called “Files to Get.” In this
window you’ll also find folders
containing outbound mail and mail
already sent during that session. Of
course, the real solution to this is to
provide bi-directional signaling so that
users can get on with other business
while a file transfer is taking place.
We’ll see.

The eMail Center also lets you create
mail, maintain an address book, and
schedule events. By clicking on
Compose Message you’ll get a window
denoting address, subject and body.
You can click on the address book or
member directory to find a user’s
e.World address. You can also attach a
file to the message, so have at it. Inter¬
estingly, you can post messages to
users across the Internet by simply
entering the name@service.whatever.
That’s it for Internet access, really.
Unlike AOL, which now provides
several services including Usenet
groups, Gopher, and WAIS, e.World
only provides mail. Special features
still under construction at press time
were the fax and postal capabilities
that would send your mail in either fax
or some snail-mail fashion at a addi¬
tional price yet to be determined.

Finally, the Automatic Courier is the
closest thing you’ll find that resembles
CompuServe’s Navigator, a program
that automates sessions on that
service. With Automatic Courier you

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Board watch - August 1994 83

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84 Boardwatch - August 1994

can schedule the time(s) when the
e.World client will automatically
launch, log onto the service and get
and send mail or send or retrieve files.
Unfortunately, this capability only
extends to mail and files, so there’s no
way to also retrieve any content from
the conference postings, or items from
the Newsstand, for instance. Nor does
it provide info on new files, perform
searches or any of the other cool stuff
Navigator does. Something of a help I
suppose, but you have to have actually
been there to select a particular file for
downloading in the first place. Fortu¬
nately, you can compose and read mail,
edit your address book and schedule
the Automatic Courier offline, so if you
only use e.World for mail, the auto¬
matic sessions can save money.

Another area that helps you in this
regard is the Membership menu that
gives you access to the Membership
Directory and provides the ability to
“look up” a colleague if they are online.
You can also use this menu to set
various preferences. For instance you
can configure e.World to automatically
decompress files and throw away the
stuffed file after you log off (default).
This is a nice touch and one that shows
off the Apple Events awareness of an
eMail program designed by Apple
itself. Other prefs you can toggle and
adjust what kinds of fonts and sounds
you’ll see and hear, when and where.

Bill Gram-Reefer, based in Concord,
CA, is president of WORLDVIEW,
specializing in connectivity and
communications. Bill has been writing
about Macintosh computers since
1984. Email Bill at: reefer@netcom.com

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SHOOTOUT: SOFTWARE
RATINGS AND THE
STRUGGLE FOR INDUSTRY
DOMINANCE

by Lance Rose

W ithin a few months we will be
treated to sex, violence and
profanity ratings on computer software.
Those who witnessed ratings regimes
develop for comic books, films or pop
music in the past shouldn’t be
surprised. This ritual is acted out with
every new medium favored by our teens
and pre-teens, helplessly attracted to
consumer products featuring violence
and, at a slightly more advanced age,
sex.

Computer games went way cool with
this crowd a year or two ago, when they
finally achieved convincing visuals,
sounds and 3D action. We have been
treated to a parade of computer games
featuring dismemberments, strip tease
babes, and people and animals gunned
down everywhere in bright red splashes
of blood. If there’s profit in showing a
beaten enemy’s head lifted off his body
with the spine still attached and
dangling, then there’s a bunch of
companies working on depicting the
most gruesomely realistic dangling
spine. There are many, myself
included, who couldn’t care less about
the influx of hardcore games. Everyone
should be able to choose their own
poison.

There are others who see differently.
Wherever youngsters frolic wildly with
a new medium, the guardians of our
moral fiber are not far behind, seeking
as always to shut down the party. They
come armed with a well-worn, but never
proven theory: that sex and violence in
entertainment media cause kids to go
out and commit depraved acts of — you
guessed it — sex and violence. This
unproven theory gains popular force
with every news report of a senseless
killing where teenage kids chant words
from a heavy metal song while beating
their friend, or a young suicide who is
also known to be a Dungeons and
Dragons addict.

Once the masses are whipped into a
moralistic frenzy, something must be
done to contain the excesses teens

crave, or else the industry in question
will suffer a hellacious legal clampdown.
This is where the computer game busi¬
ness is at today. The moralists are
damning computer games as Satan’s
latest twisted digital temptation for the
hearts and minds of America’s young.

To make America bend to their will, a
laughably easy task for maniacally
narrow-minded interest groups, they
enlisted Representative Jack Lantos to
sponsor a game ratings bill, H.R. 3785,
currently pending in the Committee on
Energy and Commerce and the Judi¬
ciary. No smart politician this side of
retirement will oppose the bill. Most
government efforts to regulate or rate
entertainment media contradict the
First Amendment protection of free
speech, but we preserve this freedom by
throwing a bone to the restrictive
moralizing types every now and then.
This year’s bone is computer game
ratings.

The next move in the ritual rating game
is for industry to self-regulate to avoid
government regulation. Software
makers are now organizing to do just
that. As of this writing, at least two
different self-rating regimes have been
prominently advanced by major soft¬
ware industry trade groups. It turns
out, though, that there is anything but
a community of interests among the
game makers. On a closer look, the
computer games rating affair is rife
with strange trends and agendas. The
real issues at stake have very little to do
with whether Johnny should get his
rocks off in front of a computer. For
context, we need to consider the other
major factors setting the stage for
computer game regulation. There’s
more behind it than simply the appear¬
ance of a few gruesome and racy titles.
For one thing, computer games became
a really, really big business while few of
us were looking. Several months ago, a
fascinating news tidbit made the
rounds: the computer game business,
including console videogames, grossed
more money worldwide in 1993 than
the entire Hollywood film industry.
This milestone was not lost on film
makers, who had already immersed
themselves in all kinds of secretive
multimedia projects five years ago or
more, and are fully committed to an
“interactive” future. For many in
Hollywood, interactivity has arrived and
it looks like a videogame. That’s where
the entertainment money is increas¬

ingly flowing, retooling our feature film
production machinery for game develop¬
ment. Recent demos of games in
progress are shockingly slick, a dazzling
merger of modern Hollywood produc¬
tion values with the latest trends in
computer action games. Videogame and
computer companies like Electronic
Arts, Philips (makers of CD-I machines
and software) and Crystal Dynamics are
leading the way at the moment, but we
are also seeing major involvement from
film industry mainstays like Steven
Spielberg, who recently announced a
major investment in software company
Knowledge Adventure.

Where the film industry goes, film
ratings easily follow. No one is talking
about broadening the existing film
rating system to cover software, but the
film industry and the public have
become pretty comfortable with a
moralistic rating regime. If Holly¬
wood’s new romance with computer
games also becomes subjected to a
rating system, it’s nothing they haven’t
already factored completely into their
way of doing business. Similarly, the
public is entirely used to ratings on its
Hollywood product, and should barely
raise an eyebrow if ratings show up on
the interactive and home computer
versions. In fact, if the new computer¬
ized Hollywood products are not rated,
some outraged parent or preacher will
scream bloody murder about how the
film industry is dodging regulation
under cover of new entertainment tech¬
nologies. They’ll get the new stuff
covered by a ratings system in no time.

The only players not already comfort¬
able with an industry rating system are
the software companies. Which brings
us to the other main factor leading to

88 Boardwatch - August 1994

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computer game regulation: computer
companies have been remarkably free of
industry regulation up to now. Many of
the traditional factors leading to
industry regulation have been absent or
relatively subdued to this point.
Unlike the telephone and cable televi¬
sion businesses, the computer industry
is not rife with monopolies (the occa¬
sional IBM or Microsoft notwith¬
standing), so there is no need for regu¬
lations protecting the public from over¬
pricing, access restrictions and other
monopolist excesses.

Unlike the dishonest and incompetent
S&L industry, there has been no need
for a major bailout of the computer
industry, so there is likewise no need
for regulations helping the industry
change its own diapers. And unlike the
securities and commodities industries,
the computer industry has no known
history of systematic and widespread
fraud on the public, requiring a contin¬
uous regulatory watchdog keeping the
players honest.

Regulation is now on the menu for the
computer industry, though, due to the
so-called “convergence” of the computer
industry with the telephone, cable,
print publishing, film, television, and
other information industries. Computer
products are increasingly being deliv¬
ered through channels previously
reserved for those other industries, and
vice versa. Multimedia products appeal
to markets cutting across industry lines,
and companies from all these industries
are merging or joining into all kinds of
alliances.

Existing regulators like the FCC have
historically latched onto each industry
as it became involved in some form with
broadcasting, and today rule not only
the telephone industry, but also the
cable television and parts of the tele¬
phone industry. Now that computer
companies and their products are
becoming more entwined in the activi¬
ties of traditionally regulated compa¬
nies, regulators are happy to bring the
resulting hybrids and new businesses
within their kindly paternal oversight.
So regulation fever is running high in
the world of computer software, games
in particular, and there really is no
turning back. This is where the real
fun begins.

It turns out that not all producers of
computer games are dead set against
regulation. In particular, some of the
larger videogame companies seem to be
actively exploiting the game ratings
movement, to pursue an entirely

different business goal: suppressing
their competitors in the computer game
business. The trade group in question
is called the Interactive Digital Soft¬
ware Association, or IDSA. It is
composed of 12 companies: Acclaim,
Atari, Capcom, Crystal Dynamics, Elec¬
tronic Arts, Konami, Nintendo, Phillips,
Sega, Sony, Viacom, and Virgin.
Together, these companies represent
many billions of dollars of annual
revenues in the home entertainment
business, and especially the cartridge
videogame business.

Among this select group of mammoth
companies, Nintendo and Sega are the
kings of the hill when it comes to
computer games. They develop and
manufacture the most hugely popular
videogame players, and license most of
the cartridges produced for those
players by many of the other companies.
This industry-dominating approach was
used by Nintendo when it rebuilt the
home videogame market after the
collapse of the Atari-led videogame
industry in the early eighties, and was
aped several years later by its main
competitor Sega (maker of the host
machine for Sonic the Hedgehog). It
involves controlling both hardware and
software, and aggressively using patent,

copyright and trademark lawsuits to
drag down any company that dares to
make compatible videogame cartridges
without buying a license from the hard¬
ware maker. Nintendo and Sega may
not win every single lawsuit, but they
win more than enough to call the shots
in the home videogame business. The
hegemony of the Japanese giants in the
cartridge business is nearly complete,
but watch out! Here comes the PC-
based computer game business. Games
running on home computers have been
a toy industry up to now, limited mostly
to running on the Amiga, Atari and
Macintosh platforms, the only ones with
decent sound and graphics processors.
A pretty small market, all told. But in
the past year, IBM-compatible PCs have
been fitted out with their own inexpen¬
sive and powerful, if somewhat
temperamental, sight and sound capa¬
bilities and high storage capacity CD-
ROM drives. Home multimedia PCs
and multimedia upgrade kits are selling
like hot cakes. Sales of computer games
for PCs are likewise taking off. All this
is pretty painful for Nintendo and Sega.

The growth of PC computer games
spells a hard upper limit on the growth
of cartridge videogames. Families often
need to choose where to spend their

Boardwatch - August 1994 89

computer entertainment dollars. Will
they invest in a machine that helps
Junior with her homework and minds
the family’s finances along with
running a few games, or a device whose
crowning achievement is bringing Super
Mario Brothers into the living room?
Worse by far is the fact that Nintendo
and Sega have zero influence in the PG
business, a complete flip from their
dominating rule of the cartridge
videogame business. For the cartridge
videogame companies, the software
ratings agenda is sent from heaven: an
industry-wide regulatory regime that all
companies must follow, or perish. It’s
like the good old days of Nintendo all
over again. Except this time, it can be
used to dominate not only the cartridge
videogame market, but the entire home
computer industry. The only catch is
that before software ratings can become
a vehicle for industry dominance, it
must be controlled. This must have
been easy as pie for Nintendo and its
IDSA cronies, for they had control of
both the legislative process and the
industry self-regulation effort even as
the potential rating legislation was
announced. How they achieved control,
whether through campaign contribu¬
tions or otherwise, has not been laid
bare to the public at this point, but the
fact of their dominance is unquestion¬
able.

Representative Lantos, sponsor of the
ratings bill, and other Congress folks
are firmly in their pocket. So firmly, in
fact, that they are actively assisting the
IDSA in its campaign to use software
ratings to subordinate and exclude non-
IDSA computer game companies. The
main evidence for this is an astounding
letter that, according to sources, was
sent to several major software and toy
retailers in this country by Senator
Herb Kohl, chairman of the Subcom¬
mittee on Juvenile Justice, and Senator
Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the
Subcommittee on Regulation and
Government Information.

We have a copy of one of these letters,
sent on U.S. Senate letterhead to
Kaybee Toy Stores. It warns the
retailer that legislation is pending, and
commends IDSA for proposing an “inde¬
pendent” ratings system. It goes on to
criticize a competing ratings system
proposed by the Software Publishers
Association (SPA), ostensibly because
the SPA is advocating self-rating by
software publishers instead of ratings
by an independent board. Finally, it
asks the retailer to commit, in advance,
to carry only software titles rated by an
independent panel (ie, rated by the

IDSA). The Senators suggest that
without such a commitment, govern¬
ment regulation may result.

If this amazing letter was sent by the
IDSA itself, it could be the centerpiece
of an antitrust suit against the IDSA for
restraint of trade in the form of a group
boycott by retailers against a group of
software producers. It is a stark power
lunge by a handful of powerful home
entertainment companies, the members
of IDSA, against a group of competing
PC software companies, the members of
the SPA.

instead to the IDSA, as if they were in
charge of the legislation. Okay, so now
she approached the IDSA. There, she
was told that if she, and the four organi¬
zations she represented, wanted to
become involved in IDSA deliberations,
she would have to buy a membership
for a cool $25,000. Otherwise, the little
companies could not play. Unfortu¬
nately, the groups she represents can’t
readily pony up 25 G . It would not
make much of a difference even if they
could. The smaller companies would
not exactly show up with a majority
voice in IDSA affairs.

What is this independent rating system
the IDSA has its senators crowing
about? The details are not announced
yet, but certain salient features are
known. One is that the planned rating
fee is at least $500 per game, plus a
requirement of submitting a slickly
produced video of the game for submis¬
sion to the ratings panel. This is not
much for big companies, but smaller
producers, especially in shareware,
could find these costs a significant
barrier to bringing their products to
market. Indeed, it could be a big blow
to the entire BBS distribution system
for computer games, which depends so
heavily on games distributed at little or
no cost by user uploads and downloads.
Another is that the ratings process
would require advance submission of
all games. This means software
producers would have to show the
ratings panel, with members
connected to some of their competi¬
tors, their cutting edge game and
marketing concepts before they hit
the market. That kind of risk, in an
industry where the entire product cycle
for a typical computer game is only a
few months, requires a huge amount of
trust in the ratings organization.
Unfortunately, given the IDSA’s begin¬
nings, it looks like the only ones who
can trust it are those who control it,
namely its Japanese founders and their
captive licensees.

The vast majority of computer game
producers would be left out. The IDSA
system would attempt to judge the
overall acceptability of the game to
prospective purchasers, rather than
simply telling them roughly what is in
the game and letting them decide on
acceptability themselves. Finally, the
IDSA ratings would be set by a gang of
professional game raters, in proceedings
secret from the public.

endorsement of the IDSA over the SPA.
Ironically, it is also a U.S. Congressional
endorsement of a Japanese-led industry
group over a group predominated by
U.S. companies. What’s unclear is
whether using IDSA’s engagement of
Senators as middlemen insulates this
bold little letter from being a gross
violation of the law.

Rep. Lantos is doing his bit to assist the
IDSA as well. When a representative of
four organizations of smaller software
producers (the Association of Shareware
Professionals (ASP), the Association of
Shareware Authors and Distributors
(ASAD), Shareware Trade Association
and Resources (STAR) and Educational
Software Cooperative (ESC)) contacted
his office to discuss the ratings bill he
was sponsoring, she was directed

While technically worded to make it
arguably defensible as promoting the
independent regulation approach over
self-rating schemes without choosing
sides between companies, the ruse is
paper-thin. Given the way the industry
has aligned, he Senatorial letter
functions

purely

as an

90 Boardwatch - August 1994

Despite the impressive attempt by the
IDSA juggernaut to smother all compe¬
tition with his year’s version of
Nintendo-Sega world domination, the
stakes are too big. The PC-platform
software companies are fighting back,
hard. An unprecedented alliance, the
Computer Game Ratings Working
Group, was recently formed between
the SPA , ASP, ASAD, STAR and ESC.
While the collective economic might of
the Working Group companies in the
games business may still not quite rival
the big 12 of the IDSA, the Working
Group does represent a lot more
producers. If nothing else, it can at
least move the fight closer to the
proverbial level playing field. As the
biggest operator of the bunch, the SPA
seems to be taking the lead within the
Working Group. The main thrust of
the Working Group is to keep the
impending ratings system, if have one
we must, from turning into a farcical
facade for a takeover of the home
computer market by the cartridge
videogame makers. In particular, they
want to keep ratings out of the hands of
any so-called independent ratings board
that might be co-opted by special inter¬
ests and bogged down in bureaucracy.
They are working on a self-labelling

system that would be implemented in
software. Each game producer would
answer a series of questions, and the
software would spit out the appropriate
informative label. The labels would be
content-based (e.g. “This software has
several scenes of extreme violence and
some light nudity”), rather than the
judgmental approach pursued by the
IDSA (which might result in labels like
“This software is not acceptable for chil¬
dren under 13”).

The only apparent weak point of this
system, if it is to be dependable, is its
reliance on federal and state truth in
advertising laws to keep dishonest soft¬
ware producers from mislabeling their
products. This could be easily fixed,
though, by setting up internal industry
self-disciplinary procedures designed to
make it easy for consumers misled by
inaccurate labeling to bring their griev¬
ances against errant software producers
to the industry group, without having to
start up a whole lawsuit. Who will win,
the would-be oligarchy kings of
computer home entertainment, aka the
IDSA, or the surging mass of smaller
independents comprising the Working
Group? It’s a toss-up right now. Any
readers who want to help influence this

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war can do so by writing the Congress
people mentioned above and their own
Congress people, and encouraging any
educational organizations of which they
are part to take an activist stance. And
which side should we take? The inde¬
pendent ratings board approach
certainly looks attractive in principle,
but given the history of the IDSA
agenda, it would be foolish to believe
any board they would set up would be
truly independent. There is also the
matter of the cost of ratings to game
producers, which could knock a lot of
smaller game makers out of the busi¬
ness, and stifle the entire BBS distribu¬
tion of games. From this corner, the
relative anarchy of the Working Group
approach looks a far better bet to assure
vigorous and free ongoing development
of children’s software in this country.

[Lance Rose is an attorney and writer
practicing high-tech and information
law in Montclair, NJ with the firm
Lance Rose & Associates. He can be
found on the Internet at elrose@path.net,
and on CompuServe at 72230,2044. He
is also author of SysLaw, the legal guide
for online service providers, available
from PC Information Group at 800-321-
8285. - Editor]

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Boardwatch - August 1994 91

Delphi

7BIT DELPHI AND
CHANGES ON THE
INTERNET

by Walt Howe

W ill the coming of Delphi to the
Internet and its larger rival
services following behind change the
nature of the Internet? Delphi has been
connected to the Internet for two years
as of July 1994. During that time,
although Delphi releases no figures, it
has clearly more than doubled in size,
more likely quadrupled. Old timers on
the nets have expressed fears that the
existing established culture on the nets
will be drastically changed by the
coming of a different type of user. Is
this true? Will the quality of life on the
nets be lowered or diluted by all the
new users? Many changes are visible
during the past two years, since the
coming of Delphi. Large anonymous
FTP sites from which files could be
freely transferred back to your
computer have become much harder to
get into. Search utilities have come
along to make finding things on the
chaotic nets much easier, but as
numbers have grown, they have become
inaccessible for hours at a time. Is this a
step forward or backward?

The most visible culture shock has
perhaps come in Usenet newsgroups,
where newcomers are most visible.
There are thousands of newsgroups,
each devoted to a discussion topic
through messages posted for all to read.
The newsgroups range from serious
topics like bionet.molbio.genome program to
not so serious topics with titles like
alt.fiame roommate (yes, I know that is
very serious to some) to the ridiculous
with titles like alt.sex.bestiality.barney (for
people with purple newt fetishes).
There are no rules or regulations to
follow in this vast system, except those
that the users establish for themselves.
Because it is so unregulated, the culture
has replaced it with expectations just as
rigid as any set of laws could be, and
these expectations are enforced by the
users. Users are expected to stay on
topic and not run off on wild offshoots,
particularly on the serious newsgroups.
Newcomers are expected to know
enough not to post a chain letter titled
MAKE.MONEY.FAST or to ask for get
well cards to be sent to Craig Shergold
(who got out of the hospital years ago).
Advertising is frowned upon, unless it

contributes strongly to the interests of
the group, and is presented in a very
low key way. Beginners are not
expected to ask beginner questions on
any group, except those set aside for the
newbies. Many groups regularly publish
a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
file for the sake of newcomers (and old
timers, too), so they will not ask a ques¬
tion that has been asked and answered
237 times before. (These FAQ files are
great sources of information, whether
you want to find information on modern
encryption techniques or where the best
nude beaches are in Arizona.)

What happens to newcomers who do not
observe these and similar rules of neti¬
quette? They are likely to receive a lot
of e-mail. A LOT of e-mail. It will range
from calm explanations of what they did
wrong to gross insults (flames) that
would make a Marine drill sergeant
blush, some of it very creative. Or they
will receive copies of very large files
(sometimes a core dump) to “educate”
them better. For people whose mailbox
has limited size and particularly for
those who are charged for the amount
of mail they receive, this retaliation can
be quite significant.

Newsgroups are very good at self-regu¬
lation. They are so good that when a
small law firm in Arizona decided to
flood 5000 thousand newsgroups with
their ads in a very well publicized case,
the retaliating e-mail shut down the
small Internet provider they used for
hours. Not that the result was a good
one for the provider! What does all this
mean for Delphi or for those to follow?
Or conversely, does a flood of
newcomers through these sources get
beyond the capabilities of the nets to
police themselves. Will the flood of new
users overwhelm the culture of the nets
and change it irrevocably? Let’s look at
a few considerations that will try to
answer this question.

Estimates of the number of users on the
nets now range from 20 to 30 million
worldwide. There are still more users
with full access to the nets in universi¬
ties than anywhere else. Every
September, the universities add a new
Freshman class, which adds more users
at one time than the commercial
services by a large factor. The nets have
gone through this influx regularly for a
long time. The universities are still
adding new connections or expanding
old ones regularly, too.

The nets continue to double in size
every year. By a year from now, we are
projecting 50 million users. At best, the
commercial services such as Delphi,
AOL, and CompuServe, even if all their
subscribers used the Internet regularly,
are just a small part of the overall
growth. The rest of the growth will be
made up of smaller and smaller busi¬
nesses, smaller colleges getting
connected for the first time, much more
use of the nets by students outside of
computer science and engineering, more
use by public schools and libraries and
state and local government, more use by
BBSs getting connected directly, and
much more use in all these categories
by other countries. The connections of
the commercial services will not revolu¬
tionize and change the nets in any
significant way; they will be a small
part of the inevitable changes that are
going to occur for many reasons.

THE GIVERS
AND THE TAKERS.

O ne aspect deserves a closer look in
considering the role of commercial
services. The universities and even the
federal government have a strong
tradition of giving to the nets. For all
the resources that people in an organi¬
zation take from the nets, they try to
give back good value in return. This
value takes a lot of forms. It may be
contribution of databases of informa¬
tion, such as space related reports and
images, oceanographic research infor¬
mation, or texts and analyses of great
literature. It may be library catalogs
from thousands of libraries and in some
cases, full texts of books, journal arti¬
cles, and research reports. It may be

92 Boardwatch - August 1994

free software from a long tradition of
sharing developments with the world. It
may be in developing and sharing net
utilities that meet a widespread need
[See sidebar on Archie]. It may be in
supporting the new communities such
as Free-nets and community libraries
and schools. As long as the givers
balance the takers, the net remains very
healthy. Where do the commercial
services fit into this balance? Must they
just be takers? Can a bottom line orga¬
nization afford to be a giver as well as a
taker? A key question is whether a
commercial organization can even
participate in the nets if it is not a giver
as well as a taker? Is it enough to say
that by giving access to thousands of
people who would not have access
otherwise, the organization is a giver?

While there may be some merit to the
argument that the organization is
contributing the goal of universal
access, the answer is, of course not!
Delphi has been a taker for the most
part so far. Is there any incentive for it
to do otherwise, and return value to the
nets? There is a social contract among
participating organizations. MIT, one of
the founding organizations of the
Internet, has long devoted considerable
machine time and space to the major
FAQ archive on the Internet. Delphi
recognized the value of FAQ files for its
members and was pointing gopher
menus straight at the MIT archives.
MIT observed that Delphi was the
major user of its archives, and informed
Delphi that this was unacceptable, since
there was no quid pro quo in the
arrangement.

Delphi responded to this very reason¬
able observation in two ways. First,
Delphi brought mirrors of the most
popular FAQ files directly into its own
disks, so that requests for them did not
go to MIT. Second, Delphi set up a
caching system of automatically holding
the most common outside requests from
MIT and elsewhere in disk memory, so
that files that were accessed repeatedly
by different users only required a single
access to the original files. The next
request for the same file does not go
outside of Delphi, but accesses the
cache. This substantially reduces the
load on the original provider.

Thus, while Delphi has not added to the
GIVE side of the equation, it has
substantially reduced the TAKE. The
balance is not there yet, but it is much
improved. So there are good economic
reasons for a commercial organization
to reduce the TAKE. Are there reasons
to move to the GIVE side? There are

several good reasons why an organiza¬
tion such as Delphi should move that
way. For one, we have seen that the
Internet culture can police itself very
effectively. Whether it is individual
flames to those who post ads in the
wrong place or it is big MIT saying to
Delphi that they are out of balance, the
issue must be attended to.

If Delphi doubles in size again in the
next six months, it must find the right
answers to remain a member in good
standing with the Internet community.
It doesn’t mean just reducing the load
on MITs FAQ files, but reducing the
load on various other popular files and
utilities. Such as Archie, Veronica and
WAIS search utilities. It puts a big load
on World Wide Web servers elsewhere
as this network grows rapidly in popu¬
larity. The only way to reduce the load
is to put up servers of its own for each
of these utilities. And just as important,
it can only move to a balance between
give and take by making these servers
available to the nets, too, for others to
use. Delphi’s peak loads are in the
evenings. University peak loads are in
the afternoons. If Delphi’s utilities are
made available to the rest of the world
during Delphi’s quieter hours, the
necessary balance is in sight. And
Delphi says they are moving in this
direction.

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When the Internet was small, it
was easy for a good net surfer to
keep up with the files available
for FTP at the various anony¬
mous FTP sites that all could log
into and get files from. But as the
nets grew, it became increasingly
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People from all over the Internet
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In the true tradition of the
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This worked very well for a while,
but one day, it came to the atten¬
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and pulled the plug on the McGill
archie. Fortunately for the
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thanks to the proliferation of the
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have moved along to form the
company Bunyip, and are devel¬
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growing out of the original archie
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Boardwatch - August 1994 93

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AOL MAKES A
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THE FUTURE TO FROM
GUI TO MUI

By Dave Tennant

INTERNET UPDATE

A couple of columns back I wrote
about the Internet on AOL. At the
time the only service available was e-
mail, but there was the promise from
the service that their GUI interface
would not only explore the breadth of
the Internet, but the depth as well.

Working to keep that promise, AOL
has added WAIS and Gopher databases
to its-More-Internet Area. WAIS
(pronounced “wayz”) stands for “Wide
Area Information Server” and is a tool
used on the Internet for searching data¬
bases such as NASA, congressional
contact information, and even the
complete works of Shakespeare (it’s all
there; I checked).

Gopher, named by the development
team at the University of Minnesota
after the school mascot, the Golden
Gopher, is probably one of the most
powerful resources an Internet traveler
can employ because it lets the user
“dig” through information resources in
easy to navigate menus, or lists. AOL’s
Gopher is not quite as easy to use if
deep exploration and freedom of move¬
ment on the Internet are a user-
priority, especially when compared with
Mosaic or other GUI flavors of the
Internet. (For other reasons, see AOL
Has Gone Internet” in the June 1994
issue). AOL has sought to have its

Internet interface be consistent with
the rest of the service and that neces¬
sarily slows it down. Even still, it is a
valuable service for those not fortunate
enough to have a SLIP connection.
Gopher is essentially an index using
the common folder metaphor. Best used
as a browsing tool, Gopher allows the
user to see all the information available
regardless of whether or not one knows
the IP address or domain name.
Gopher also offers the user the ability
to distribute items read through Gopher
via e-mail. A fertile source of informa¬
tion, Gopherspace is a further expan¬
sion that will lead Internet explorers
even further out into the far reaches of
cyberspace.

Looking to make AOL even more
Internet capable, the folks in Vienna
are testing TCP/IP connectivity to
AOL’s network. TCP (Transmission
Control Protocol) is the way all the
Internet hosts communicate with one
another transferring mail and files.
The only game in town and somewhat
dated, TCP/IP is a bit on the clunky
side. TCP/IP allows one to send any
kind of information (text, sounds,
graphics) across the Internet in smaller
pieces that are easily managed. Sepa¬
rating the information into chunks,
TCP then verifies for any missing pieces
and reassembles it back in the correct
order.

IP (Internet Protocol) is
a method of distributing
e-mail in packets or clus¬
ters through special
purpose computers
called routers. Much like
a post office, IP manages
each message’s address,
routing as a paper letter
would find its way in the
snail mail.

“To broaden the appeal
of online services and
reach an audience of
tens of millions of
people, online services need to do two
things: leverage multimedia to create
more engaging services, and develop
new sources of revenue that can help
subsidize the cost of creating innovative
content.” So said Steve Case, Presi¬
dent and CEO of America Online, which
continues its march toward one million
subscribers. AOL announced in mid-
May that they have passed the 800,000
mark, tripling their customer base over
the past year and making America

Online the nation’s (make that the
world’s) fastest growing service. Now
comes word that AOL may be making
the strategic alliance of its future,
charting the path for multimedia appli¬
cations in the current server mode in
anticipation of newer broadband tech¬
nology.

Last May 11, AOL and Redgate
Communications Corporation posted an
announcement that they had agreed to
a merger to be made complete sometime
in mid June. One thing Redgate and
AOL have in common is that both have
in the past been ventures with or
related to Apple Computer, Inc.
Although AOL’s ever growing userbase
is over 70 percent PC-based — AOL
continues to have a huge Macintosh
following in comparison to other
services. AOL is also reported to have
licensed some of their communications
software technology to Apple Computer.
Redgate has published several Apple
Computer Directories, which were also
sponsored (paid for) by Apple. AOL
apparently is seeking to be the first on
the block to take the fresh approach and
accelerate the convergence of online
services with multimedia capabilities.

AOL has hinted they are working to
provide new ways for its customers to
transact their business and pleasures in

different forms of interactive
marketing. Everyone in this emerging
market of interactive media is a relative
newcomer, but Redgate is a leader.
Redgate (not affiliated with Bill Gates)
manages multimedia databases and
delivers its content via custom publica¬
tions such as CD-ROM, cable, broad¬
band, demand fax, private satellite
networks and digital shopping clubs. A
privately held company, Redgate is
based in Vero Beach, Florida, and

96 Boardwatch - August 1994

according to AOL press releases,
employs approximately 100 people in
points as far flung as San Francisco and
Paris, France.

Redgate’s partners and customers are
as impressive as AOL’s, including the
likes of Apple, IBM, EDS, BellSouth, US
West, Fidelity, Sun Microsystems, Intel,
Olivetti, Racal Datacom, Knight-Ridder,
Novell, Xerox, Microsoft, Motorola,
NYNEX, Prudential, Pacific Bell,
Hewlett-Packard, Fairway Technolo¬
gies, among others. The company’s
revenues last year were approximately
$13 million. According to AOL the
biggest change this new alliance will
yield is to strengthen its franchise in
interactive services. Agreeably Redgate
will help AOL create new marketing
opportunities by aiding in its transition
from a graphical user interface (GUI) to
a multimedia user interface (MUI).
AOL’s Windows and Macintosh soft¬
ware already supports digitized speech
attached to events such as “File is
Done,” “Welcome,” and so on. The
merger could meet both of Case’s previ¬
ously mentioned imperatives by
“helping [to] accelerate AOL’s entry
into interactive advertising, transac¬
tional marketing, broadband services,
and cable...” So says AOL spokesperson
Pam McGraw, who adds that the
merger will also help “to create new
revenue streams.” so far, there hasn’t
been any mention from AOL of how
much if any investment capitol this
merger will make available.

Clearly, AOL is going to need big bucks
to finance necessary expansion of their
backbone and capacity. It may be that
AOL is gaining more than just tech¬
nology by merging with Redgate. A
timely infusion of cash as well as a way
to downplay hefty expenses in infra¬
structure are probably also involved.
No doubt, this merger will help improve
their reported earnings, which are
expected to level off or decline as they
start spending more to support all their
new members. Financials notwith¬
standing, AOL’s savvy in online exper¬
tise and Redgate’s skills in interactive
media may be just the ticket to position
AOL to lead the way in opening up a
new medium with mass market accep¬
tance. Case said it best, “... online
services lack pizzazz, and CD-ROM
titles lack connectivity...”

The combination of America Online and
Redgate enables us to create hybrid
offerings that marry the best attributes
of each ... [and] will serve as the
training wheels for an eventual broad¬
band world.” For those of you with an
eye toward investment in AOL, here’s a
little clipping of the details of the
merger: “The merger of Redgate
Communications with a wholly-owned
subsidiary of America Online is
expected to be completed by mid-June
1994, subject to approval by Redgate
shareholders, the effectiveness of a
registration statement to be filed with
the SEC, and other customary condi¬
tions to closing. Redgate shareholders
will receive 444,184 shares of America
Online common stock for all

outstanding Redgate common and
preferred stock and warrants, repre¬
senting approximately 6.2% of the total
number of shares of America Online
common stock that will be outstanding
immediately after the merger. Addi¬
tionally, 103,383 shares of America
Online common stock will be reserved
for outstanding employee options issued
by Redgate and being assumed by
America Online.

The transaction will be effected on a
tax-free basis and will be accounted for
as a pooling of interests. In connection
with the merger, Ted Leonsis will
continue as President of Redgate
Communications and will also serve as
an officer of
America Online,
reporting to Steve
Case. Redgate will
operate as a
subsidiary, contin¬
uing its headquar¬
ters operations in
Vero Beach,

Florida.” Well just
what does Redgate
Interactive do?
Redgate’s Interac¬
tive Information
Networks (IIN)
provide AOL
subscribers with
access to computer
industry news and
the latest techno¬
logical develop¬
ments with the only
difference, at least
as Redgate puts it,
being that there is
no middle man.
The information

Boardwatch - August 1994 97

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the subscriber receives via IIN comes
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unedited and unfiltered. According to
the AOL literature, it’s the kind of
“inside” news that these companies
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None of this was up and running when I
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boon for information hungry people in
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and the top management from such
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and Motorola in Redgate/IIN’s Events
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going to provide a look at different specs
for equipment used in multimedia, as
well as multimedia programs. I am
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bigger) hard drive, so I took the oppor¬
tunity to browse through the specs of
some of the information offered on
Redgate. Doing a standard search, I got
a listing of several devices, descriptions
of which I could read and find informa¬
tion such as storage size, speed and
access time, caching, design, warranty,
and cost. I am guessing but from what
is available now, there will probably be
a facility to post particular questions
back to a service rep for hardware/soft-
ware specific questions. If there isn’t at
least, there should be.

Ziff Davis Publishing’s Computer
Library has even more extensive infor¬
mation on CD ROM starting at $1,200 a
year for a new CD each month that has
both an MS-DOS and Windows version

on it. The Windows version has a very
nice interface which wonderfully
formats the information for viewing
and printing but is admittedly a bit on
the pricey side, and the online version is
nowhere near as nice. But there’s more
to the story here than just Redgate’s
multimedia information databases.
AOL is bringing in other forms of media
as well.

AOL COVERING CABLE,

AND OTHER ALLIANCES

AOL recently announced it is going to
expand its television content to offer
television listings and interactive
bulletin boards for over 75 cable and
broadcast channels such as Bravo,
Cinemax, Comedy Central, The
Discovery Channel, HBO, and The
Learning Channel. (The last time I
checked, none of these were yet avail¬
able.)

The idea is to provide enhanced online
areas that include interactive bulletin
boards, show schedules, and discussions
with producers and guests. The
Discovery Channel and The Learning
Channel are further going to provide
interactive educational bulletin boards
and conferences hosted by members of
the VCR (Video Classroom Resource)
team. Partnering with Tribune Media
Services, AOL will provide date, time,
and channel listings of all TV shows,
and the new “Viewer Area” will also
have interactive bulletin boards for over
75 cable and broadcast channels, hosted
by TV “buffs” (read that, couch pota¬
toes with a Master’s in Vegging) for
members to discuss cable programs.

This is a big jump from having just
isolated forums like “Lifetime”

For me a big boon is the deal AOL made
with the Journal Graphics transcript
service that’ll allow me and others who
use the service to order transcripts of
shows like “MacNiel-Lehrer” and “This
Week with David Brinkley” online.
There’s a Trend Here... in addition to
all the aforementioned services coming
online with AOL, NBC TV recently
joined up (so far, the only major
network to do so with any major online
service). Want to know the scoop on
Jerry Seinfeld of NBC’s immensely
popular “Seinfeld”? Or do you want to
see if Phil Donahue’s wearing a dress
this week, or if Deirdre Hall (Dr.
Marlena Evans Brady) was ever rescued
from Stefano the seducing kidnapper?
Just keyword “NBC” and click on the
“Shows” button.

All kinds of information is available
about programming, Star Bios (did you
know Kelsey Grammer surfs?),
upcoming guests and topics. I even
found out I could get tips to attend a
taping of one of my favorite shows,
Frasier, (which is unfortunately going
to have to run up against “Roseanne,”
another of my favorites, next year).
This is really the nerdy couch potato’s
dream! Picture this: a serious spudling
in training can be laying in the
barcalounger enjoying the latest after¬
noon episode of “Days of Our Lives”
and armed with a laptop and modem
can simultaneously go on AOL and try
to answer questions for a contest which
could lead to a trip to an NBC show and
visits with the stars! After winning the
grand prize, our Potato can move over
to the NBC merchandise and sales area

98 Board watch - August 1994

and purchase the latest in mugs, pins,
hats, jackets, gossipy biographies, or
download a publicity shot or episode
still-shot from his/her favorite NBC
show(s). Want to access NBC program¬
ming for the upcoming week, check on
the file “Upcoming Topics and Events.”
Launched in May, NBC Online is
another step closer to the world of
interactive TV that will doubtless pay a
profit as well as big dividends to NBC in
research of consumer patterns.

Everyone is getting ready for the
converging roads of interactive media,
when this type of service moves to the
screen of full interactive TV. This is a
bit of a coup for NBC, the first major
network to be represented on one of the
nation’s commercial online services.
“Because America Online is recognized
for its ease of use, affordability and
real-time interactive features,” stated
Alan Cohen, the Senior Vice President
of Marketing for the network, “we hope
to capitalize on interactive technology.”
Giving away the bullets ... But don’t
shoot off the gun. All this info and all
these pictures and bios are tantalizing
indeed. I mean, have you ever tried to
get a photo from one of the studios?
While nice, they are generally a basic

black and white glossy. From NBC
Online though, one has the opportunity
to download full color photos of cast
pictures, individual stars, and really
neat still shots from an episode. There
is no extra charge for downloading; the
only cost is connect time unless you are
over your five hours per month. Down¬
loading costs no more than just
browsing the service, and there is no
premium to use NBC Online or to
download any items in its libraries.
What is a bit fuzzy though is this: what
exactly can you do with them? These
photos are the property of NBC with all
the copyright protection therein. Users
of AOL can download them to view, but,
as in all copyrighted material on a
public BBS or Online service, cannot be
passed on to another user or reused in
any other form.

I’d have to figure that this is going to be
a can of worms because, correct me if
I’m wrong, but doesn’t this stuff get
around? Aren’t we gonna start seeing
cast shots of Seinfeld on BBSs across
the country. According to NBC,
“...except as otherwise specifically
permitted herein, all materials (text,
video, photos, graphics, software)
contained and transmitted as part of

the NBC Online Service (or downloaded
from the NBC Online Service) cannot
be broadcast, duplicated, edited, manip¬
ulated, published, rented, sold, publicly
displayed, used in litigation or used for
commercial or promotional purposes.”
Let me see if I can put that in English.
I can download it, and I can look at it,
but I cannot send it to my friend, (even
another member on AOL) and I cannot
post it on my BBS (if I had one). I can
tell my friend where it is, but he has to
go get it himself. The same is true with
sounds and stills and text. Yikes!

Think of all that litigation NBC would
be in if they decide to legally follow up
on that one! In the meantime anyone
who wants to download the file
TENNANT.TIF from the Boardwatch
Magazine BBS for upload to other
BBSs, for making tee shirts, or for
giving as gifts to friends is hereby
authorized. This offer does not include
morphing my “image” or use of my like¬
ness on any “Wanted” posters. Until
next time.

[Dave Tennant is an Economics and
English Instructor in Southern Cali¬
fornia. He can be reached on America
Online at “Dtennan” or on the Internet

at dtennan@eis.calstate.edu ]

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Boardwatch - August 1994 99

Prodigy

PRODIGY MAY BE
THE NEW CHANNEL
ON YOUR CABLE
TELEVISION DIAL

by Ric Manning

M ost Prodigy subscribers have to
make do with 9600-bps access. But
members in Fairfax County, Va., will
soon be able to use the service at speeds
up to 1,000 times faster.

The Washington, D.C., suburb will be
among the first areas in the country
where computer users will have the
option to connect to Prodigy through
the local cable TV system. Prodigy and
Media General, the cable system in
Fairfax County, signed a deal in May
that could be the forerunner of many
more partnerships between online
services and cable companies. “The
cable industry is our future,” said
Prodigy Vice President Scott Kurnit in
announcing the Media General arrange¬
ment at the National Cable Television
Association’s annual meeting in New
Orleans. “If we could today switch all of
our users from telephone to cable, we
would do it.”

CompuServe and America Online also
are known to be exploring cable-based
delivery. CompuServe, for example, has
a pilot program in Exeter, N.H., that
tests CompuServe access over the local
cable system. And some prototype
systems on display at the cable trade
show demonstrated cable connections to
the Internet. Online service subscribers

will see several immediate advantages
to using the cable’s black coax:

Speed: Cable can deliver data far faster
than telephone lines. The increased
speed will allow Prodigy to integrate
multimedia elements. Instead of
clicking a button to see a photo with a
news story, subscribers will get the text,
picture and sound in the same package
at the same time. Live links: Cable
users don’t have to log on to Prodigy
when they want to use the service. They
merely switch to their cable connection,
much like changing channels on the TV.
Cable subscribers can be notified of
newly-arrived mail, even if they’re not
actively using the service.

Open phones: With a cable connection,
Prodigy subscribers will keep their
phone lines free. They won’t be forced
to buy a second phone line or risk the
wrath of other family members for tying
up the line. Plugging a computer into
the cable won’t be as easy as plugging in
a TV. Computer subscribers will need a
special cable modem to translate the RF
signals that come over the coax. At least
three companies have cable modems in
the works. Zenith Electronics Corp. has
a box that it hopes to sell to cable
systems, which would then sell or rent
them to subscribers. Intel and Digital
Equipment Corp. expect to have their
cable modems in retail stores by next
year with prices starting at about $500.
The modems are capable of moving data
at speeds at about 10 million bits per
second — fast enough to put a high-
resolution color photo on a computer
screen in about 10 seconds. “Cable
takes our current business and makes it
better,” said Prodigy’s Kurnit.
“Consumers want sound and photos
and video.” Cable operators, which are

gearing up to rebuild their systems and
add two-way capability, are also anxious
to start serving computer owners. “If
we were to ignore computers we would
be crazy,” said Don Mathison, senior
vice president at Media General. “In
Fairfax County, over 60 percent of our
subscribers have computers and over 30
percent of them have modems.” At the
national cable show, Prodigy also
demonstrated a service that would act
as a companion to existing cable chan¬
nels. While watching an NFL football
game, a viewer could press a button on
the TV’s remote control to bring up the
Prodigy service. The game picture
would shrink to about 80 percent -of
normal size and the Prodigy options
would appear in a wrap-around menu.
Viewers might use the service to check
the status of other games or bring up
team and player statistics for the game
they’re watching. The service could also
link to a home version of QB1, the
interactive game played in sports bars
that lets players predict the action. The
service could also be used to link stock
quotes and business information on
Prodigy to the CNBC business channel.

MORE SHOPPING OPTIONS

ou might think that Prodigy already
has so many shopping options that
it couldn’t squeeze in any more. But
you’d be wrong. Starting late this year,
the mother of all shopping services —
Home Shopping Network — will arrive
on Prodigy with more than 1,000 items
for sale.“It’s going to be huge,” said
Prodigy’s Carol Wallace. The service
will be HSN’s first foray into the online
world. “There is a tremendous potential
for growth,” said Jeff Gentry, president
of HSN products. “Our partnership
with Prodigy will keep us in
the forefront as the demand
for more and more interac¬
tive systems grows.” HSN
sees Prodigy as a tool for
target marketing. Some of
its cable TV viewers may be
happy to sit through an
hour of cubic zirconium
offers and commemorative
Elvis plates waiting for
something worth buying.
But busy young adults don’t
have that kind of time. They
want to be in charge of their
shopping, not leave it up to
the network. The new
service is also a step toward
the eventual merging of TV
and online content. With its
recent ESPN deal and now its connec-

100 Boardwatch - August 1994

HSN, Prodigy is clearly pointing
toward the time when it will deliver
video in an interactive environment.
And while some Prodigy subscribers
may be annoyed by the commercial
content on the network, Prodigy
insists that there are plenty of
members who see it as a valuable
feature. According to Wallace, Prodigy
users spend an average of 10 percent of
their online time shopping or reading
ads. “There are very specific products
that work, and we’re still learning
what they are,” she said. Some prod¬
ucts don’t sell well online because they
require a “touch and feel” factor. One
service that Wallace says has been a
runaway hit is PC Flowers.

PRODIGY SIGNS COMICS
CHARACTERS

T he futuristic Tekno-Comix charac¬
ters from BIG Entertainment’s-
multimedia comic books are on their
way to Prodigy. Starting in August,
the Tekno-Comix Forum will provide
Prodigy members with access to online
interviews with Tekno-Comix creators,
artists and writers, sneak previews of
upcoming comic book issues, contests
and writer and artist profiles. BIG’s
comic books include characters created
by celebrities such as Leonard Nimoy
and Gene Roddenberry; authors
Mickey Spillane, Anne McCaffrey,
John Jakes and Isaac Asimov; and
popular comic book writers including
Neil Gaiman and Max Allen Collins.
Other features in the section will
include cover photos for upcoming
issues, synopses of current issues and
author and artist profiles. Members
also will be able to write to Tekno-
Comix directly via e-mail.

DAILY DOSE OF
LETTERMAN

N ow you don’t have to stay up late
to catch the Top Ten list on Late
Night with Dave Letterman. The lists,
direct from the Home Office in Sioux-
City, IA., are available every day on the
new CBS network section on Prodigy.
Jump to CBS. No. 10 from a recent list
of announcements that will make the
studio crowd cheer wildly: “Hillary
Clinton is buying cattle futures for
everybody.”

Ric Manning covers business tech¬
nology for The Courier-Journal in
Louisville, KY. He gets e-mail on
Prodigy at USJM92A, on CompuServe
at 72715,210 and he’s ricman@iglou.com
on the Internet.

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Boardwatch - August 1994 101

CompuServed

TIRED OF DOWN
LOADING JUMBO
MULTIMEDIA FILES?
COMPUSERVE PUTS
THEM ON CD

by Ric Manning

I magine how CompuServe would look
to you if you worked for the
network. Connected by a local
network, you could instantly pull down
any of the thousands of pictures, video
clips or sound files and run them on
your desktop PC. No waiting for
modem transfers and, most impor¬
tantly, no hourly access fees.

Now you’ve got a good picture of
CompuServe CD, a new CD-ROM that
CompuServe calls a multimedia exten¬
sion of its online network. The pilot
version for Windows was released in
May and a Macintosh version is in
development. The price of the disc is
$7.95, including a $5 usage credit.
CompuServe’s initial plans are to sell
new versions of the disc every other
month. If the project is successful, it
will go monthly sometime next year.

CompuServe sees the disc as a preview
of the sorts of material that will even¬
tually come down the Information
Superhighway. With CompuServe and
other online services cozying up to
cable TV operators, the services may
soon have the necessary bandwidth
available to quickly deliver a CD worth
of data to desktop computers.

For now, though, the CompuServeCD
is only modestly integrated with the
online service. It’s more of a sampler of
some of the goodies tucked away in
CompuServe’s file libraries that you
may not know about or may consider
too expensive or time-consuming to
investigate. It also has the strong scent
of an advertising vehicle. Many of the
features are thinly-disguised sales

pitches, a characteristic that, judging
from some of the responses in the
CompuServeCD Forum (GO CCD), is
not terribly popular with early
customers.

The CD is organized in a magazine
format. From the opening screen, you
can click on the Scan button for a brief
introduction to the disc and previews
of some of the features, or choose “Jam
With Jimmy” to see and hear Jimmy
Buffet do live version of “Cheeseburger
In Paradise” from his concert album.
The video clip — which runs more
than 30 megabytes — is a good
example of the kinds of material that
fit nicely on a CD-ROM but would be
impractical to download.

You also get the latest version 1.29 of
CompuServe Information Manager for
Windows. You can install it fresh or
use it to update existing WinCIM. The
program will install without altering
any of your preferences or stored files.

Computer graphics gets center stage in
the pilot issue. The disc contains
MMGIF, a fully operational version of
a new GIF image viewer that adds a
soundtrack to a GIF slide show. There
is also a profile and a demo version of
Kodak’s new photo-to-digital
converter, a video interview with the
executive director of the Optical
Publishing Association, some nice
fractal images and a how-to on down¬
loading and viewing GIF files.

Turn the page to entertainment
features and you get music clips by Ted
Hawkins and Counting Crows, along
with text files on the artists’ back¬
grounds, a profile of the Wild Colonials
band and preview trailers for the
summer movies “Even Cowgirls Get
the Blues” and “City Slickers II.”

Much of the rest of the disc is blatantly
commercial. There’s a video chat with
real estate pitchman Frank Gallinelli,
an offer to buy a dog-training video,
promotions for trips to Belize and
Antarctica and appearances by some of
CompuServe’s home shopping spon¬
sors, including PC Flowers and
MicroWarehouse.

The video clips that accompany the
promotions are a good idea, but they
appear in such a tiny window and at
such a low resolution that they are
little more than a curiosity. The excep¬
tion is the Buffet video, which is

brighter and clearer than the others
and can be resized to a larger and more
comfortable window.

Perhaps the most useful feature of the
CompuServe CD is its off-line file
finder. The utility includes a huge
database of files from the service’s IBM
and Graphics libraries. You can search
by keyword, author or upload date
across nearly 100 forum libraries, just
as if you were online, or browse the
files in individual forums.

The files are displayed in a dialogue
box much like the one built into
WinCIM. Point to the file name and
you get the file’s size, source and
description. You can highlight the ones
you want, then select another option to
will automatically retrieve and store
them. The novelty of the disc’s other
features may quickly fade, but if you
use CompuServe as a primary source
for downloads, the CD is worth its
price in saved search time.

MAYHEM BY MODEM

M urder, vice, violence, theft, fraud,
espionage, genocide, terrorism
and political persecution.

Sure, you can find plenty of that on
TV, in the newspapers and in the
bulging True Crime section of your
favorite bookstore. But if you want to
get closer to the action, try Time
Warner’s new Crime Forum on
CompuServe (GO TWCRIME).

Want to be an amateur detective?
Interpol is using the network to
distribute wanted posters for stolen art
objects from around the world. The
GIF files are in the General/Forum
Help Library.

The discussion section is a buffet of
crime topics. Among the most active
are the sections devoted to murder and
violence, bizarre and unusual crimes,
corrections, crime writing and Hot
Topics. There is also a section devoted
to victim recovery.

“You are on notice,” says the forum’s
welcoming message, “that much of
what you find here will be unsettling:
photographs and crime reports, frank
discussions among survivors and law
enforcement agents, and blunt infor¬
mation on how to avoid being victimized. ”

102 Boardwatch - August 1994

AEROSMITH SINGLE

A erosmith fans who want the band’s
new song “Head First” had to turn
to CompuServe to get it. Instead of
putting the song on the band’s “Get a
Grip” album, Geffen Records decided to
dabble in electronic distribution.

Geffen put the song in its section on
CompuServe’s Music Vendor Forum
starting June 27. The record label has
long offered 30-second clips of its
artists’ music, but this was the first
time a full-length song was offered
online.

“If our fans are out there driving down
that information superhighway, then
we want to be playing at the truck
stop,” said Aerosmith lead singer Steve
Tyler in a press release.

The three minute and 14-second song is
available in two formats. A stereo
version takes up 4.3 megabytes of hard
disk space and a mono version needs 2
megabytes.

Downloading the stereo version takes
about 60 minutes at 14.4 kbps and
about 90 minutes at 9,600 bps. For the
first month, CompuServe is waiving
download fees, but after that, regular
charges apply. That means getting one
song could cost $15 to $20 — about the
price of an entire CD.

To play the song, users need a Windows
PC with a sound card. CompuServe said

expect the sound to be “broadcast
quality.”

WHAT’S NEW

C ompuServe dove into World Cup
Soccer this summer by offering a
special section devoted to the teams and
the games. Banking on its international
presence, with members in nearly 140
countries, CompuServe posted news,
photos, playing schedules and profiles of
players in its World Cup section (GO
WCUP). In addition to reports from the
Associated Press, CompuServe also
drew on the French and German news
wires and posted pictures in the Reuter
News Pictures Forum (GO NEWSPIX).

Consumer Reports has updated the
online version of its 1994 new car
ratings (GO CONSUMER). The posting
includes ratings and profiles of nearly
200 1994 vehicles along with prices and
reliability predictions. The section also
includes Frequency-of-Repair Records
for vehicles from 1988 to 1992.

Expanding its multinational offerings,
CompuServe now posts news from wire
services in the United Kingdom, France
and Australia. The UK news is from the
Press Association (GO PAO), the
French news comes from Associated
Press France en Ligne (GO
APFRANCE) and news from Down
Under comes from the Australian Asso¬
ciated Press Online (GO AAPONLINE).
All three wires are included in
CompuServe’s Basic services.

Current events and cultural issues of
interest to African Americans are now
available in the African American Art
and Culture Forum (GO AFRO) spon¬
sored by American Visions, the official
magazine of the African American
Museums Association. Message section
and library topics include a calendar of
events, art, music, cuisine, history,
travel, books, genealogy and education.

BRAGGING RIGHTS

TTtTho’s got the biggest . . . member-
VV ship list?

In June, CompuServe announced that
its subscriber list topped 2 million
worldwide. That made it, in
CompuServe’s words, “the largest
active membership of any online
service.”

Prodigy routinely calls itself “America’s
most popular online service with more
than 2 million members.” They may
both be correct.

MM G![ - MARS.<3!f : [640x4BOxSt.j

Die Bun yiew Options Help

SIP

Mars scape found on CompuServe CD

Much of CompuServe’s recent growth
— about 80,000 new sign-ups every
month — has come overseas. The
service now offers native language
interfaces for subscribers in France and
Germany.

Prodigy, however, is available only in
the United States.

Regardless of which service is larger,
both services are riding the crest of the
explosion of interest in online services.
Let’s see, 2 million CompuServe
subscribers paying $8.95 a month
should produce . . . about $18 million.

(Ric Manning writes about computers
and technology for The Courier-Journal
in Louisville, KY., and a weekly column
on computers and consumer electronics
for the Gannett News Service. Ric reads
his E-mail at ricman@iglou.com on the
Internet, 72715,210 on CompuServe
and USJM92A on Prodigy.)

Boardwatch - August 1994 103

GEnie

LOOKING INTO GENIE

by Lenny Bailes

l;his month GEnie is still turning up
new graphic user interfaces. As we
mentioned last month, the official
“GEnie for Windows” front-end in beta
testing contains no automated script
functions. Now you can download
Twinpack, a new shareware front-end,
from GEnie’s Windows RoundTable
(Page 1335). Twinpack is an
easy-to-understand Windows
offline manager with many of
the same capabilities as
Aladdin (the DOS-based front-
end). Twinpack has a script
language that lets you perform
standard or custom autopass
downloads. The pre-configured
script options let you select
various Roundtables or indi¬
vidual topics, and specify what
you want to download
according to all of GEnie’s
message options. The package
includes a pop-up terminal
screen, a file library manager, an auto¬
matic response editor, and an e-mail
manager. Twinpack has an easy-to-
understand interface that could make it
popular as a substitute for Aladdin, but
first they need to get the bugs worked
out. The current version of Twinpack
behaves erratically, crashing unexpect¬
edly in the middle of various file
management chores. But Twinpack has
greater potential as a useful tool than
the “official” Windows front-end
offering from General Electric.

tables presented a series of Real-Time
conferences and special events focusing
on censorship and related issues.
Participating Roundtables included
Writers, Comics, Music, Science Fiction
and Fantasy, ShowBiz, Romance,
Music, and Law.

The Romance RT had a session
discussing/debating the inclusion of
erotic, steamy material in genre novels,
while the Comic and Music RTs
thrashed around the issue of slapping
contents labels on albums and comic
books. Of course, in the comic-book
industry this is an old, old issue, dating
back to the days of psychiatrist Fredric
Wertham’s anti-comics crusade in the
‘50s. Wertham’s ambition was to purge
comic books of almost any material that
made kids want to buy them in the first
place. His published broadsides were
responsible for the 15-year reign of the
Comics Code Authority: a “voluntary”
set of standards that banned the depic¬
tion of vampires, prohibited graphic
depiction of violence, and forbade

SPEAK YOUR MIND,
TRUTH IS KIND

uring the month of June, GEnie’s
Parts and literature-related Round¬

Twinpack: GEnie shareware
Windows front-end

writers to allow “evil” or “crime” to
triumph in any published story. A look
at contemporary comic books will show
you that the Comics Code Authority is
now long gone, but the music industry
may not be quite as lucky. Participants
in this RT had a good time consoling
each other, and reminiscing about
censored lyrics in various rock ‘n’ roll
singles. All agreed that Death-
metal/industrial music, and rap singles
can be pretty hard to stomach, but it’s
the parent’s job to provide a filter, not
the responsibility of the recording
industry. There was also some discus¬
sion of the spillover of censorship into
the video game market. An industry
panel consisting of Sega, Nintendo,
Electronic Arts and some other major
vendors would make it compulsory for
shareware vendors to submit a tape of

their game and a $500 fee to an
industry panel just to obtain a rating.
The fact that the game companies who
are proposing the ratings, panel, and fee
are often stung by competition from less
affluent shareware vendors did not
escape the notice of the RT participants.

In the Science Fiction & Fantasy RT’s
Electronic Frontier conference several
writers tossed around scenarios for
nightmare government controls on
modems and communication networks.
RT participants with more Internet
experience stressed that the whole
thing is probably far too large and
autonymous a structure to be regulated
by the government. One editor opined
“I wouldn’t mind there being a law that
cube-steaked and tenderized people who
release viruses, but I’ve never seen a
reasonable proposition for how to go
about it.” No one mentioned s-f author
David Brin’s “politeness worms.” (In
one story that Brin wrote, a net poster
who uses too much obscenity in his
postings gets tagged by a special
“networm.” The worm summarily
informs him that his communications
are now being monitored — henceforth,
any messages that don’t conform to a
gentlemanly standard will be inter¬
cepted and deleted from the system.)

OTHER ROUNDTABLE
NEWS

4T% Enie’s new New Age Roundtable
VJf held a live conference in June with
a professional TAROT reader and
teacher. Nina Lee Braden conducts
classes on the second Thursday of each
month to teach interested Aquarians
how to delve into this font of divinatory
wisdom. (NEW AGE, Mov 1122;2 at
any GEnie prompt.) The picture of the
Moon you see floating around this
column is from a Tarot deck under
construction by Eugene Stewart
Tiffany. It can be found along with
other Tarot card samples in the New
Age file library.

The National Broadcasting Company
has taken a leap into the Information
Age by establishing an NBC Roundtable
(NBC, Page 1530). GEnie users can
now provide feedback to NBC program¬
ming executives on their favorite televi¬
sion shows or download photographs of
NBC stars from the file library. (As
part of GEnie’s June focus on censor¬
ship issues, the Law and Science Fiction
RTs conducted a joint forum on Censor¬
ship and TV media.)

104 Boardwatch - August 1994

GEnie’s Antivirus RoundTable is now
offering a free version of RSA’s PGP:
PGP, v. 2.6 Cryptography Toolkit.
Previously, United States and Canadian
citizens could download PGP from MIT
via Internet. PGP 2.6 can be down¬
loaded from GEnie by logging onto the
Antivirus RT (Page 1350) and
consenting to RSA’s license agreement.
PGP is software that you can use to
keep your e-mail private. It runs on
commodity desktop systems, yet is
secure enough that even the most
powerful supercomputers can’t break it.

Although PGP 2.3 is widely used
outside the United States (and is infi¬
nitely more unbreakable than the ersatz
“Clipper” proposal our government
would endorse), the use of PGP version
2.3 in the U.S. potentially infringes
patents licensed to Public Key Partners
by Stanford University and MIT. In the
past, this made use of PGP by American
citizens somewhat problematical. MIT
has addressed this issue in PGP 2.6 by
using algorithms licensed by RSA Data
Security, Inc. This license includes
rights to all relevant U.S. patents on
public key cryptography for non¬
commercial use.

The current version of PGP has been
programmed a little differently than
previous ones to resolve legal issues
concerning patent infringements. A
deliberate format change in version 2.6
of PGP will be triggered on September
1, 1994 to discourage people from
continuing to use PGP 2.3a. Version
2.6 will continue to be able to decrypt
messages generated by older versions of
PGP. However, after 9/1/94, PGP 2.6
will start producing a new and slightly
different data format for messages,
signatures and keys. (It will still read
and process messages, signatures, and
keys produced under the old format.)

GEnie’s Antivirus RT is sysoped by
Ross Greenberg, the developer of F-
PROT, Integrity Master and VirX
(antivirus packages which are highly
regarded in the PC and Mac hacker
communities).

GAMER NEWS

A llan Varney and Aaron Allston, two
well-known freelance game
designers appeared for a live confer¬
ence in the TSR Roundtable.

This month two new multi-player
fantasy role playing games were added
to GEnie’s menu. Island of Kesmai

(Page 830) trains you to avoid the perils
of a SuperVGA dungeon with either an
MS-DOS or Mac-compatible 256-color
interface. Muse, Ltd’s “Through the
Looking Glass” lets players strive from
the status of mere mortal to the highest
persona within the realm: a Games-
Master. But the game resets itself
every 104 minutes, wiping out all of
your possessions and reincarnating you
at a random location.

The Hundred Years War RT (HYW,
Page 946) invites you to welcome
summer by partying with the Mongol
Hordes. HYW is a multi-generational

simulation of the 14th Century struggle
between England and France. Created
characters age and die over time, to be
replaced by their children. Strategy
also includes economic battles against
rebellious peasants and land-grabbing
peers. A new variant of the game
proposes that strong kingdoms of

England and France never formed in
the first place. Instead, European
magnates must deal with with a
Moorish kingdom in Cordoba and a
series of Mongol invasions. This sounds
a little bit heavier than the variant U.S.
Civil War simulations we played with
when I was in high school.

GENIE MAGAZINES
AND NEWSLETTERS

QJ everal new GEnie multimedia maga-
Ozines made their first appearance
this month. (These publications are
available in addition to LIVEWIRE,
which appears every month in IBM,
Macintosh, and straight-text formats.)
The new Windows GEnie LAMP
contains a variety of hypertext articles
about Windows products, some reports
and rumors on CHICAGO, plus pointers
to new shareware in the Windows file
library. The Digital Publishing Round¬
table (DIGIPUB, Page 1395) also
includes Atari, Mac, and Apple II
versions of GEnie LAMP, and other
assorted multimedia publications. DOS
users can participate in a special
DIGIPUB message forum that adds
animated pictures and sound effects to
text. This is implemented through a
package called CONDOR/CONDOR
PAINT which uses a souped-up IBM
console driver. (CONDOR contains a
superset of the usual PC-ANSI display
features.)

The CyberSpace Weekly Report now
appears every Friday on GEnie
(CYBERSPACE, Page 2000) with
industry gossip, trade show reports, and
new product information. This forum is
currently buzzing with news of 3DO’s
recent agreement with Creative Labs to
provide 3DO animation to PC users
through a Creative Labs-produced PC-
card.

The American West RT (WEST, Page
1065) carries “Wontanging Ikche”, a
text-based Native American newsletter
from Usenet. It contains news of tribal
doings, details on disputes with the U.S.
government, and some good poetry.
“Circles can link ... circles of many
differences... becoming solving circles., a
healing matrix in cyberspace.”

[Lenny Bailes is a PC consultant, writer
and teacher living in the San Francisco
Bay Area. He is a contributing editor
for Microtimes, a California computing
magazine, and co-author of Byte’s DOS
Programmer’s Cookbook.]

Boardwatch - August 1994 105

Teleconfusion

HARDHATS AND TEDDY
BEARS...WHAT’S WRONG
WITH THIS PICTURE?

S ince I’ve been doing these “freebie
reviews” quite a few strange things
have been arriving in unmarked packages
here at the office. For example, Baseball
hats, Tee shirts, Playing cards, Rubber
ducks and even an occasional stuffed
lizard or two.

If you recall, the cover from last month’s
Boardwatch it was a picture of Phil
Becker with a clipboard wearing a
hardhat and looking pretty darn profes¬
sional taking notes or something in a
room full of computers. I have to admit,
my first impression was one of confusion.
I mean what earthly reason would the
prez of a major software company have to
wear a construction helmet? Now don’t
get me wrong, I understand how tough
the software business can be and how
easy it is to pull a muscle when you’re
lifting all those floppies out of the box, but
a hardhat? I can’t recall the last time
that there was a reported incident of any
cranial damage resulting from a software
crash. But hey, ya gotta admit it does
look pretty cool.

With this thought in mind I decided to do
it, in my usual “head first” approach, and
put this fine looking piece of headgear to
the test. Now I realize that this may seem
like some sort of journalistic “deja Vu”
because of the similar merchandise
reviewed on these very pages not more
than 3 months ago, but this is not really
like the (now famous) Nethopper Hat.
This is , for all intents and purposes, a
helmet!

When I took the hat from the box I was
surprised to find that this was not just a
single promo item but there was a little
“extra” included in the package. A s m all
stuffed bear wearing a little eSoft tee shirt
was hiding under the hardhat. Let me
clarify, this was not a real bear that had
been stuffed, but a toy “Teddy” type bear.

I want to assure all you readers that are
concerned about the endangerment of
some of the wildlife on this planet that in
no way is eSoft actually capturing and
stuffing real bears for the promotion of
their software product. This would be not
only a cruel and rather disturbing act but
can you imagine the shipping costs alone?

At this point I decided that I would go
with some pretty tough testing to really
see what kinda stuff eSoft was handing
out.

First thing that should be considered
when one is thinking of wearing a hardhat
is, of course, the durability factor. I mean
after all, the whole reason for wearing a
hat that is hard enough to drive nails with
is not going to be for just the look
alone...it has to work. I really was not too
thrilled with the idea of this item not
passing the test, I mean, we are talking
about a pretty unforgivable medium here,
namely my head. Not ever being one to

back down
from much
of

anything, I
began to
think of
ways to
check out
this impor¬
tant (if not
essential)
feature. No
way around
it, this was
gonna call for some dramatic testing and I
was just gonna have to face it... the “Go
ahead and hit me on the head” test.

The preparation was far more complex
than either the test itself or the equip¬
ment involved. Using the Louisville
Slugger was my daughter’s idea. This was
the option chosen over my suggestion of
just nailing me with a Nerf ball a few
times...may have something to do with the
recent discussion we had about her new
boyfriend.

With my hardhat firmly placed on my
head and my 330 pound good bud Harley
poised on a three foot ladder just above
me I was kinda ready. The next thing I
knew there was a loud swooshing sound
and then a blinding flash of light, seems
Harley missed and nailed my fluorescent
light fixture in the garage on his follow
through...not good. O.K. lets try it again,
my daughter said. Somehow her enthu¬
siasm to make sure that this test was
carried out did not make me feel like she
was concerned about quality journalism.
Once again, swoosh and...

I wasn’t really unconscious (at least for
very long) but from what the paramedic
told me I was more like a seabass flopping
around on a pier for a while. The first
thing I thought about (when my basic
thought process returned) was “what the
hell am I doing this for and why are those
people in the white jackets so interested
in me? Then I started to remember “the
Test”. Well I must say, according to my
new neurologist, if I’d taken a hit like that
without the hardhat my chances of ever
being able to tie my shoes without direct
supervision would be slim or none. Pretty

much have to give this phase of testing a
“Thumbs Up.”

My only suggestion to Mr. Becker, ya
might want to add a chin strap, it took
almost an hour to find the helmet and
another 15minutes to get it off the neigh¬
bor’s roof. As it turns out, that Harley’s
got one hell of a natural swing.

The next week (after a semi recovery and
eight pounds of Advil) I decided to resume
testing. At this point I figured the worst
was behind me and the rest of the testing
could proceed without too much sacrifice
on my physical behalf. I was intent that
in no way would a ball bat and a ladder be
involved and they readily agreed
(although I was a little more than suspi¬
cious when I heard about the large “C”’
clamp). If you have ever had one of those
headaches that make you feel like a pair
of rhinos were backing into each other
with your skull as the thrill zone for
them, you might have some idea as to
what happened next. Well, the helmet
came through with flying colors once
again but as a result of this test all my
other hats are much too big for me now.

Hey I never said that I have a degree in
rocket science, but by now I was starting
to wonder if I should design my own tests
without the assistance of my loving
Daughter and my best bud Harley. I
discussed the possibility of maybe the
next bit of testing involving something a
little less drastic, like maybe The “Stain
Resistance” test. Sounds like a plan to
me. The smiles on their faces did seem to
have a slightly unnerving effect on me,
but maybe it is just the headaches and
blurred vision getting to me.

Harley has a brother in the pool cleaning
business and they use this stuff called
Muratic Acid for washing the walls of
concrete pools.

At this writing I have to hand it to Phil
Becker, One hell of a hardhat but its resis¬
tance to chemical burns leaves a little
something to be desired. I guess the
permanent six inch part going sideways
across my head might have an air of
sophistication to it... at least that is what
my daughter and Harley keep telling me.

If you have a need for either the Hardhat
or Stuffed bear (personally I would
strongly advise the bear) give the good
folks at eSoft a call or drop them a line at:
e-Soft, Inc.

15200 E. Girard Ave.

Suite 3000
Aurora, Co 80014
(303) 699-6565 Voice

106 Boardwatch - August 1994

Direct Dial

WOMEN WHO SYSOP TOO
MUCH AND THE CALLERS
THEY LOVE

by Brian Gallagher

W hile it may be true that women are
very much a minority online, it is
not true that there aren’t any female
BBS operators. There always have been,
a good example, Brenda Donovan.
Donovan began her online travels in
1984 with CompuServe, quickly became
disenchanted with the cost and moved
on to the local BBS scene where she has
become a force in her own right. On

February 3, 1989, Donovan opened up
her own board, Pacific Rim Informa¬
tion, (619)278-7361 , making her one of
the longest running female sysops
around, hence it is fitting that she
brings us this month’s list of 252 female
sysops from all over the world.

Donovan didn’t start keeping the list
until the 1993 ONE BBSCON show
when, at the encouragement of Jack
Rickard, publisher/editor of Boardwatch
Magazine, who said he would like a list
of female sysops and couldn’t find
anyone better qualified to keep one
than herself, she began doing just that.
By the time the show was over, she
already had 50 boards signed up.

After the show, building the list came
largely through a private FidoNet echo
titled: FEMALE_SYSOPS, with moder¬
ator Cyndi Collins. The 252 BBSs you
see printed here is not completely repre¬
sentative of the scope of women sysops
out there, Donovan said, “I could easily
double this list in another month or
two.” The reason she hasn’t isn’t
because of lack of information, it is the
time involved in entering all of the
information into the list. But, rest
assured, she promises to assiduously
keep at the task until it is completed,
and she has no plans to abandon the
female sysop list - ever.

“I think there’s a lot more of us out
there than people think,” she said of
female sysops, and she thinks “it’s
great.” At last year’s ONE BBSCON
show, Donovan chaired the Women
Online session and was delighted that it
was attended by a full house. The
session, which was held on the first day
of the show, had two more “Birds of a
Feather” follow-up impromptu sessions
over the next two days. Much of what
was discussed involved how women felt
about being online.

The biggest obstacle for women online,
Donovan said, is harassment from those
who frequent the adult boards and chat
areas. “The rest of us who
don’t deal in that realm,”
she said, “don’t seem to
have any problem.”
Donovan will again chair
this year’s Women Online
session at ONE BBSCON
in Atlanta from August 17
- 21, and she again expects
it to be packed. For atten¬
dees, she can also be
found in booths 153 and
155 working with James
Smith of Online Communications, Inc.
with the company’s Front Door e-mail
system.

Donovan’s qualifications to be chair¬
person for the Women Online session
are substantial. Her degree in mathe¬
matics/physics and her MBA aside, this
is one lady who knows her computers
inside and out. A regular attendee at all
cyber conventions, she has run her own
consulting business, Donovan Enter¬
prises, since 1983. The business has two
main services, the first is as a local
quality assurance engineer working
primarily for defense contractors, a job
she has held with numerous companies
in the past. The second, is titled Micro
Computer Systems and deals with all
facets of PC computing.

When working with Micro Computer
Systems she specializes in custom
computer building, (she doesn’t do
Macs), hardware and software compati¬
bility and configuration. She also sells
modems through Donovan Enterprises
and to her knowledge is the only autho¬
rized ZyXEL sysop dealer outside of the
company; she also carries U.S. Robotics
and other modem brands all of which
can be purchased through her board.
Keeping her particularly busy with this
side of her endeavors is the set up and
installation of computer bulletin boards.

She has installed a Major BBS for horse
racing bettors, and four or five Wildcat!
systems for various uses including one
for a prep school in Tijuana, Mexico.
Moving BBSs south of the border is one
of Donovan’s more recent goals as she
has just finished installing the La
Connexion Mexicana BBS, 52- 66-26-
1131, also in Tijuana with the Fido
address, 4:971/9, running Remote
Access software.

The La Connexion, run by sysop Felipe
Bartel is a free system which will be
tied directly to the Internet along with
Donovan’s Pacific Rim, A1 Bruner’s The
SW/SE Connection, (317)640-8267 of
Anderson, Indiana, and Steve
Froeschke’s (pronounced Frisky) E&S
Systems BBS, (619)278-8267 of San
Diego, California. Froeschke’s E&S,
with Internet address cg57.esnet.com,
is currently an Internet host on its own,
but by combining with the other
systems, (a target date has been set for
late September), the foursome hope to
have “...something bigger than just a
host,” Donovan said. When the new
company is formed the Internet site will
be: thenetlink.com.

For the Pacific Rim, Donovan runs
Mustang’s Wildcat! and has done so
since the beginning. It is set up on three
computers tied to three more computers
running under a Novell LAN. The BBS
machines each have their own specific
duties. One machine is a major echo
mail hub (18 hubs) and a file bone. The
second machine she uses to log on to
her board with, and the third machine
deals exclusively with UNIX operations.

Currently the Pacific Rim carries some
30 or 40 newsgroups as well as e-mail.
The newsgroups she does carry are not
necessarily the most popular, she said,
“lots of them are for me.” But, if there
is a subscriber who wants a particular
newsgroup she’ll ask for it.

An area of her board that is particularly
well stocked is that of recovery. In fact
the recovery echo was the first echo she
carried and she continues to carry all
recovery information she can find. It’s
been 19 years and 3 months since she
had a drop, she said, (April 3, 1975), and
“life’s been wonderful ever since.”

Not surprisingly an area of expertise on
her board is technical support, and in
addition to the finely honed skills of
Donovan, callers can rely on the talents
and knowledge of co-sysop Paul Adams,

Boardwatch - August 1994 107

a certified Novell engineer. The file
areas on her board are all shareware
and there are no adult files. A good
portion of her subscribers are senior
citizens who, along with students, she
offers a special subscription deal to.

Standard subscriptions are $30 for six
months, or $50 for a year. For senior
citizens and students the discounted
rate is $20 for six months, or $35 for a
year - all subscriptions include full
access to all the features and areas the
board offers.

To get your BBS listed on the female
sysops list, you must be female, have a
BBS, and have some knowledge about
the hardware and software that makes
a BBS tick. If you fulfill these criteria
call the Pacific Rim with the informa¬
tion, e-mail Donovan at:
brendad@dennet.esnet.com, or snail mail
her: Donovan Enterprises, attn:Brenda
Donovan, 4303 Genesee Avenue, STE
224, San Diego, CA 92117. Or contact
Cyndi Collins at the Log Inn BBS of
Bloomfield, New York, (716)657-7660 or
through FidoNet, 1:2613/505. For those

wanting a copy of the list it will be
available through a door on her system
by the time this goes to print. If for one
reason or another an individual is
having trouble connecting, she will send
a copy of the list to all who send a self
addressed stamped envelope to the
above address.

PHONE

SYSOP

204-233-0227

Emily Curry

203-333-0223

Yvonne Marie Boots

203-365-0511

Nancy Vaine

205-238-4327

Kathy Rockholz

205-264-8000

Linda Cummings

206-545-9455

Gena Merritt

209-239-4973

Rita Smith

209-599-7435

Pam Lagier

210-658-8009

Donna Murrell

214-824-4269

Ann Stalnaker

214-620-7131

Kathleen Weaver

301-933-1655

Heather James

303-940-7357

Terry Rune

305-221-1571

Barbara O’Keefe

305-432-2223

Michele Stewart

305-437-9848

Linda Abraham

305-473-2314

Sherry Levine

305-480-6047

Debbie Hazelton

305-561-8894

Beth Baldwin

305-771-0041

Sonya Whitaker-Quan

305-821-3317

Ronnie Toth

305-963-0151

Katrina Dezern

307-472-4918

Michele Siedenburg

314-581-6717

Linda Glover

619-679-6776

Donna Ransdell

318-865-4503

Patty Morris

319-366-1985

Marge Robbins

405-482-9146

Cindi Magnusson

405-324-6026

Diana Mullin

405-350-7762

Joyce Jordan

405-447-0503

Linda Chapman

405-624-3156

Jo Kahn

405-672-5538

Sharon Brown

405-685-5558

Deanna Luke

405-728-2061

Mona Shaver

405-728-8228

Judy Sneed

405-942-4845

Mary Link

405-947-0446

Jo Harris

407-798-2972

Shirley Hein

409-268-1181

Rhoda Segur

409-272-1152

Ruth Grove

409-727-0887

llene Hebert

413-535-1063

Linda McCarthy

413-545-4453

Helen Sternheim

415-327-4591

Wendie Berstein-Lash

415-493-8683

Marilyn Davis

415-898-2644

Diane Smith

501-784-9078

Dawn Harvey

501-791-2996

Lisa Hastings

503-280-5644

Janet Murray

503-681-8324

Sue Matthews

503-741-8174

Denise Orton

504-897-9204

Lyla Thomas

505-662-0659

Pam Trexler

508-840-8017

Cheryl Buzzell

510-547-5741

Linda Martin

510-658-4655

Violet Stymacks

512-576-3893

Katherine Schroeder

512-832-1764

June Parchman

603-889-0283

Donna Marshall

603-786-2349

Laurianne Olcott

603-894-4330

Marijane Currier

614-456-6448

Jennifer Murphy

615-297-5611

Deborah Hutchinson

615-331-0594

Becky Ferguson

615-385-9421

Marge Clark

615-885-5876

Ann DuPrie

615-952-2245

Foxy Ferguson

619-284-0799

Toni Clark

SERVICE

LOCATION

Schizophrenia ][

Mer Azure Presse BBS

Pleasure Palace III

The Whistler BBS

Batteries Included

Wild Rose

The Trapezium

TurboCity

Main Complex BBS

Fingers Talk

Dog Fanciers BBS

Honey Board

The Colorado Connection

Ramblin’ Roots

Sunshine PCBoard

Seed of Abraham

Misty Moonlight BBS

Serendipity

The Upper Reaches

Daybreak Mail System

SOX! The SysOp exchange

Unique Connections

The N.E.A.T Suite

The Bearly Bored

The Education Station

My Secret Garden BBS

Lighthouse BBS

The Bubbling BBS

The Tiger’s Lair

The Web

Act Locally

National Rehab Clearinghouse

The WildSide

Beggar’s Forum

TradeWinds

The Teacher’s Pet

Synergy

Auntie Yokm’s

The CoCo Zone

Central GIG

The Hiding Place

Wizard’s Domain

The SPA

Physics Forum

Fun University Network

Vote Demo BBS

Mover Mouse BBS

Antarctica

Interludes! BBS

Wilson High K12Net

Com-Dat II

Emerald BBS

Resource Access Program

Construction Net #6

TC-Trader

Camphor Fountain

Rhinoceros Kitchen

Not Ready For Prime Time

Finish Line

Federation BBS

MaxBoard

MJ’s Place

Kitty City

Transfer Station

Software Circus

Promises...A Recovery BBS

Aces High

Music City Archives

The Programmers Workshop

Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN
New Haven, CT, USA
Bridgeport, CT, USA
Anniston, AL, USA
Montgomery, AL, USA
Bellevue, WA, USA
Manteca, CA, USA
Ripon, CA, USA
Universal City, TX, USA
Dallas, TX, USA
Dallas, TX, USA
Laurel, MD, USA
Arvada, CO, USA
Miami, FL, USA
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
Davie, FL, USA
Deerfield Beach, FL, USA
Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Hialeah, FL, USA
Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Casper, WY, USA
Mexico, MO, USA
Poway, CA, USA
Shreveport, LA, USA
Cedar Rapids, IA, USA
Altus AFB, OK, USA
Yukon, OK, USA
Yukon, OK, USA
Norman, OK, USA
Stillwater, OK, USA
Del City, OK, USA
Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Loxahatchee, FL, USA
Bryan, TX, USA
Deanville, TX, USA
Nederland, TX, USA
Chicopee, MA, USA
Amherst, MA, USA
Menlo Park, CA, USA
Palo Alto, CA, USA
Novato, CA, USA
Fort Smith, AR, USA
Little Rock, AR, USA
Portland, OR, USA
Hillsboro, OR, USA
Springfield, OR, USA
New Orleans, LA, USA
Los Alamos, NM, USA
Leominster, MA, USA
Oakland, CA, USA
Oakland, CA, USA
Victoria, TX, USA
Austin, TX, USA
Nashua, NH, USA
Rumney, NH, USA
Derry, NH, USA
New Boston, OH, USA
Nashville, TN, USA
Antioch, TN, USA
Nashville, TN, USA
Hermitage, TN, USA
Kingston Springs, TN.USA
San Diego, CA, USA

108 Boardwatch - August 1994

Stephanie's Playhouse

619-569-8788

Stephanie Anderson

San Diego, CA, USA

Late Nite W.N.Y.

716-895-0587

Marlina Maloney

Buffalo, NY, USA

Shenk’s Express

619-697-8873

Carol Shenkenberger

La Mesa, CA, USA

Crystal Quill

703-241-7100

Pamela Crystal

Washington, DC, USA

Struppi’s BBS

703-478-9380

Carol Carmichael

Herndon, VA, USA

Potters House

706-637-9276

Nancy Powers

Hogansville, GA, USA

Pacific Rim Information

619-278-7361

Brenda Donovan

San Diego, CA, USA

The Lambda Zone BBS

708-298-7155

Toby Schneiter

Des Plaines, FL, USA

Rivan Warrior

713-324-3302

Terry Shermer

Huffman, TX, USA

Database Connections

713-495-4196

Vicki Surratt

Houston, TX, USA

A Womyn's Line BBS

713-647-9059

Anne Mayes

Houston, TX, USA

City of the Ancients

713-664-6824

Arlene Ogden

Houston, TX, USA

The Platinum RBBS

713-667-4215

Marilyn Barone

Houston, TX, USA

TRACE!

713-862-6400

Susan King

Houston, TX, USA

Muggsy’s Place

716-352-9694

Marge Murphy

Spencerport, NY, USA

Jenny’s CAT House

716-482-4134

Jenny Morrill

Rochester, NY, USA

Dan and Bob’s BBS

716-548-7343

Vikki Clayton

Byron, NY, USA

Log Inn

716-657-7660

Cyndi Collins

Bloomfield, NY, USA

Random Lunacy

801-221-0928

Fen Eatough

Orem, UT, USA

The Agency BBS

803-821-2745

Jennifer Credle

Ladson, SC, USA

The Medical Forum

803-824-0317

Shelley Crawford

Goose Creek, SC, USA

The Time Machine

804-599-6401

Bettie Dendekker

Newport News, VA, USA

Jammie Party

804-851-1384

Veronica Maynard

Hampton, VA, USA

Crickets Corner

806-745-8609

Donna Elam

Lubbock, TX, USA

PeaceKauai

808-338-9999

Liz Hahn-Morin

Kauai, HI, USA

Enchanted Garden

808-423-9852

PJ Estes

Hickham AFB, HI, USA

The Citadale BBS

813-368-6895

Linda Carter

LeHigh Acres, FL, USA

Byte Size Bits

813-675-8812

Jean Prophet

La Belle, FL, USA

Crystal Palace

817-370-9591

Lisa Mashburn

Fort Worth, TX, USA

The Recovery Corner

817-447-1619

Barb Murphy

Burleson, TX, USA

Blazin’ Bytes BBS

818-776-2792

Barbara Mallut

Van Nuys, CA, USA

The Mermaid’s Point

901-365-6410

Karen Richmond

Memphis, TN, USA

Cyteen Station

901-683-9964

Susan Murray

Memphis, TN, USA

Queen of Hearts

904-789-6843

Lee Noga

Deltona, FL, USA

The Club House TBBS

908-272-2073

Mary Vogel

Cranford, NJ, USA

The Dart Board

912-673-7431

Karen Maynor

St Marys, GA, USA

Metropolis

913-832-0041

MaryAnn Martin

Lawrence, KS, USA

Blue Bayou BBS

918-275-4406

Lynn Beasley

Talala, OK, USA

The Sanctuary BBS

919-227-1677

Dawn Poole

Graham, NC, USA

Chatlink

618-452-3182

Cathie Castillo

Granite City, IL, USA

Rivendell BBS

904-573-9224

Lisa Pellegrino

Jacksonville, FL, USA

Cyberia

717-840-1444

Sara Viener

York, PA, USA

Computer Hut BBS

501-329-0321

Angie Harris

Conway, AR, USA

The Electronic Pen BBS

201-767-6337

Maria Langer

Harrington Park, NJ, USA

CYGNUS

305-437-1284

Bonnie Lind

Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

Boca Bytes

305-421-3198

Debbie Lynch

Boca Raton, FL, USA

Miami Triangle

305-867-8661

Shelly Shelton

Miami, FL, USA

Face to the Wind

305-270-2489

Karen Isberg

Miami, FL, USA

Flowers BBS

305-557-7793

Laura Hernandez

Hileah, FL, USA

Vesuvius at Home

305-252-9415

Georgina Martinez

Miami, FL, USA

Tranquility

210-699-1710

Shannon Blackburn

San Antonio, TX, USA

Shofer BBS

714-838-3837

Shoshona Bieman

Tustin, CA, USA

IBM World II

401-397-5146

Marcy Crossman

Coventry, Rl, USA

QUACKERS

216-252-0743

Sharon McCormick

Cleveland, OH, USA

Camelot

614-423-0185

Beth Kloes

Belpre, OH, USA

Catseye BBS

807-623-5048

Cindy Long

Thunder Bay, ON,CAN

XBM BBS

508-586-6977

Glenda Stocks

Brockton, MA, USA

Sherwood Forest

318-479-2016

Tish Ecker

Lake Charles, LA, USA

Hot & Sassie BBS

918-258-4720

Dorinda Martineau

Broken Arrow, OK, USA

Native Spirit BBS

918-438-6532

Donna Willhoite

Tulsa, OK, USA

Night City

918-582-3930

Carolyn McComas

Tulsa, OK, USA

Over the Rainbow BBS

918-321-6129

Micki Morrison

Kiefer, OK, USA

Comm-Net Central

512-244-9753

Teri Chesser

Round Rock, TX, USA

Asylum BBS

808-456-8541

Suzy Mehlhorn

Pearl City, HI, USA

Cody Zoo

716-288-4521

Jean Cody

Rochester, NY, USA

Abstract BBS

918-250-0078

Lori Harbaugh

Broken Arrow, OK, USA

Solatium BBS

512-575-1585

Bianca Bickford

Victoria, TX, USA

Mystical Palace BBS

512-573-9385

Patricia Bastian

Victoria, TX, USA

The Party Line BBS

707-588-8055

Jami Chism

Santa Rosa, CA, USA

Vegas Chats!

702-898-2428

Denyce

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Interactions BBS

510-832-0560

Cia Watson

Oakland, CA, USA

The Home Exchange Network

407-869-5956

Linda Allen

Orlando, FL, USA

Exit Stage Left

618-236-0571

Heather Uchitjil

Belleville, IL, USA

Polka Dot Palace

201-829-8480

Lisa Rodriguez

Morris Township, NJ, USA

ChildSearch Online

707-253-2149

Beckie Pack

Napa, CA, USA

9-1-1 BBS

619-669-0385

Marj Mills

Jamul, CA, USA

Kat(h)’s Meow

603-881-9741

Kath Kirby

Nashua, NH, USA

Cape Retreat

603-672-8123

Becky Sherman

Brookline, NH, USA

The Purple Shamrock

603-598-8727

Christine Seveins

Nashua, NH, USA

Snowbound!

603-253-4256

Cyndie Leonard

Center Harbor, NH, USA

Aladdin’s Palace

604-370-1039

Alise South

Victoria, BC, BC

The PC UG Line

203-877-5520

Tracy Molitor

Milford, CT, USA

Wit's End

716-288-1474

Beth Hatch-Alleyne

Rochester, NY, USA

Renee’s Place

604-599-3885

Renee Pocuca

Surrey, BC, BC

Women's WIRE

800-210-9999

Phyllis Gardner

San Francisco, CA, USA

Market Space

404-998-7505

Jean Rearick.

Roswell, GA, USA

Back Alley BBS

204-269-7604

Heather Fraser

Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN

Northern Lights

204-477-0010

.Linda Dunn

Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN

Twilight Exchange

204-878-9614

Nicole St. Hilaire

Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN

Zenadome

204-255-0652

Margaret Watson

Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN

HIV/AIDS Info BBS

714-248-2836

Sister Mary Elizabeth

San Juan., Capistrano CA

The AirShow

904-347-5143

Carol Rex

Ocala, FL, USA

Boardwatch - August 1994 109

Way Out Wild!

203-723-9430

Jill Yasgar

The Night Owl

203-888-3690

Cheryl Willis

DisNet

518-462-6134

Maureen O’Brien

The CyberSurf Board

904-654-0101

Penny Panos-King

TSW Online Information Service

907-372-1624

Lori Martin

Lair of the Tigeress

904-473-9472

Sharyn Noakes

Metchosin Central BBS

604-478-7678

Jessica Veinot

Two Babes On-Line

206-885-4236

Liz Du Bois

Conceptual CAD Design

602-820-7861

Alex(andria)

Soap Suds BBS

314-771-7954

Barbara Niehoff

The SKATEboard BBS

508-788-1603

Perry Lowell

The Alaska Pirate Society BBS

907-562-9364

Patti Johnson

Steel Heart BBS

907-428-3160

Diane Coomer

Di's Online Cafe

205-661-8945

Diane Summers

The Mother Board

619-420-1702

Coyote Moon

The Motherboard

707-778-8841

Julie Buerg

The Kountry Kitchen BBS

912-673-6564

Vicki Phillips

The Butterfly BBS

201-523-1162

Carole Capuano

The Crystal Cave BBS

604-752-2914

Ada Willis

The Brick Centre BBS

+61-51-46-0797

Elaine Ralph

Xpress Support Center BBS

305-248-7815

Andrea Santos

Serendipity

403-251-0388

Barbara Burgess

Salata BBS

310-543-0439

Karen Mintzias

Pee Dee Mail Hub

803-383-4666

Neysa Dormish

Purple Hawk's Den

718-547-5205

Fran Clodomar

Crystal Cavern

206-883-8477

Sue Crocker

Generations BBS

403-251-5540

Kathi Crockett

Killarney Narrows

304-523-8643

Veronica Mayes

One Byte

203-444-1597

Steph Rothgeb

Dragon Weyr

804-737-2021

Sharon Moore

The Skeleton Closet BBS

804-671-8547

Debbi McKay

Bear Necessity BBS

+61-02-73-1501

Denise Altoff

AmericaNews

412-381-6285

Jean Blevins

LadyDi’s

412-856-0784

Diane Bonifati

Time Starts Now

817-332-5336

Dale Hopkins

Bear Necessities

512-451-7622

Jacci Howard Bear

Hireath BBS

+61-2-623-4835

Julia Phillips

Bits N’ Bytes BBS

207-873-1937

Anne Arnold

In Through The Out Door!

317-282-6862

Lori Smith

The Temple of Rock

+81-6117-45-5290

Katie Gochnour

Humanity BBS

213-936-6009

Valarie Knight

The Crusader BBS

213-665-4256

Jackie Farmer

0x0 Republik

714-530-5442

Opal Sullen

The Motherboard

805-581-5019

Celeste Clark

Pet Pride BBS

805-945-2590

Ruth Argust

Dolphins’ Playground

714-858-1979

Dawn Marcova

Tigers Den

714-530-2554

Jazmyn Concolor

Modem Magick

619-447-5281

Irena Schlossnagel

Homecrafter’s Workshop

619-541-2084

Barbara Roach

Point of Intercept

619-268-1259

Donna Lee

Patti’s Closet

619-278-5044

Patti Bader

Pandora’s Box

209-239-3752

Debbie Finl

Deanna’s StarBBS

209-239-0883

Diana Kirksey

SERENITY IS YOSEMITE

209-742-6488

Carol Katz

Turn On To Teens

209-292-6403

Faye Johnson

The Brass Monkey

209-431-5909

Amy Funderburg

Veronica’s VVV BBS

209-432-8687

Donna Hansen

Deep In The Heart

409-775-5552

Sheryl Allen

Cozy Cafe

318-989-9148

Roxanne Hymel

Crickets Corner

806-745-8609

Donna Elam

Wizard’s Domain

409-727-0887

llene Hebert

Classroom Earth

517-797-2737

Kendra Yahrmarkt

Benden Weyr

519-582-0557

Barbara Coates

The Kommon Room

905-522-6896

Kate Andrus

Nurses Station

606-932-6108

Sheila Rudd

Insane Asylum

502-769-3790

Sherry Rock

Electronic Mafia

502-361-4225

Carolyn Johnson

Vickie's Palace

517-589-5954

Vickie Church

Rosie’s II

608-784-3804

Rose Campbell

OS/2 Zone

606-887-2277

Donna Crisp

Candi Land BBS

313-243-6689

Paula Pautler

Houses Of The Holy

902-436-2146

Paula Mullen

The Cat’s Whisker

416-975-1813

Monica Becker

Stained Glass Windows

416-368-9955

Loralie Freeman

Bonehead’s Paradise BBS

902-883-1034

Linda Davis

White Lightening

902-435-9684

Nancy Shaw

Scorpio Rising III

703-620-2827

Virginia Harlow

The BUG BBS

301-805-3873

Dot Hage

The Night Owl BBS

602-456-2926

Janel Burson

The Cyber Cafe

505-382-0258

Tamara Hodge

CCSD BBS

307-682-3320

Denese Wierzbicki

Excalibur BBS

508-798-6969

Marianne Lorion

Enchanted BBS

413-442-0139

Sharron Berry

Windham Southwest

802-368-2327

Barb Ackeman

Rose Garden

203-253-9256

Laura Kittell

Midnight Special BBS

207-439-7919

Elizabeth Bachman

The Lighthouse BBS

207-562-8517

Sharon Parker

Divinity BBS

207-490-5844

Terri Lehoux

Longview On-Line Node 1

206-577-7358

Jeanne Lejon

Dreamers Delight BBS

612-632-4513

Karen Rourke

Just For Fun

406-452-6552

Michele Moss

Beacon Falls, CT, USA
Oxford, CT, USA
Albany, NY, USA
Crystal River, FL, USA
Eielson AFB, AK, USA
Keystone Heights, FL, USA
Victoria, B.C.

Redmond, WA, USA
Tempe, AZ, USA
St. Louis, MO, USA
Framingham, MA, USA
Anchorage, AK, USA
Fort Richardson, AK, USA
Mobile, AL, USA
Chula Vista, CA, USA
Petaluma, CA, USA
St. Mary’s, GA, USA
Paterson, NJ, USA
Vancouver Island, B.C
Loch Sport, Victoria, AUST
Leisure City, FL, USA
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Redondo Beach, CA, USA
Hartsville, SC, USA
Bronx, NY, USA
Redmond, WA, USA
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Huntingdon, VA, USA
Quaker Hill, CT, USA
Highland Springs, VA, USA
Virginia Beach, VA, USA
Tasmania, Australia
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Trafford, PA, USA
Fort Worth, TX, USA
Austin, TX, USA
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Winslow, ME, USA
Muncie, IN, USA
Foster, Okinawa, Japan
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Los Angeles CA, USA
Garden Grove, CA, USA
Simi Valley, CA, USA
Lancaster, CA, USA
Santa Margarita, CA, USA
Garden Grove, CA, USA
El Cajon, CA, USA
San Diego, CA, USA
San Diego, CA, USA
San Diego, CA, USA
Manteca, C“ ; 'SA
Manteca, CA, USA
Mariposa, CA, USA
Fresno, CA, USA
Fresno, CA, USA
Fresno, CA, USA
College Station, TX, USA
Duson, LA, USA
Lubbock, TX, USA
Nederland, TX, USA
Saginaw, Ml, USA
Delhi, OH, USA
Hamilton, OH, USA
South Shore, KY, USA
Rineyville, KY, USA
Louisville, KY, USA
Leslie, Ml, USA
La Crosse, Wl, USA
Lexington, KY, USA
Monroe, Ml, USA
Prince Ed. IS., Nova Scotia
Toronto, ON, Canada
Toronto, ON, Canada
Elmsdale, Nova Scotia
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Reston, VA, USA
Lanham, MDUSA
Huachuca City, AZ, USA
Las Cruces, NM, USA
Gillette, WY, USA
Shrewsbury, MA, USA
Pittsfield, MA, USA
Halifax, VT, USA
Enfield, CT, USA
Kittery, ME, USA
Dixfield, ME, USA
Springfield, ME, USA
Longview,, WA, USA
Little Falls, MN, USA
Great Falls, MT, USA

110 Boardwatch - August 1994

LOOKING FOR WORK
IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES

by Brian Gallagher

Listening to Sandhya Dave’ talk about
her Career Connections BBS, (417)917-
2127, you would think that she did the
whole thing just to help people out and
to save trees - and as a matter of fact
she did, but Career Connections is also

Sandhya Dave’ of Career
Connections BBS

becoming a very important tool for
some very important customers.

The TBBS-based board, opened in June
of 1993 with eight lines and today
sports 32 Internet ports you can telnet
to at CAREER.COM, and sixteen 14.4
kbps modem lines with 28.8 kbps
modems now in beta test. In November
of 1993, Dave’ added Internet access to
the system, and she said, “since then it
has just exploded.” The system, labeled
“Heart”, provides a database of high
tech job openings in the computer, elec¬
tronics, and engineering fields.
Currently there are some 300 jobs avail¬
able online from companies like Texas
Instruments, IBM, Tencor Instruments,
and National Semi Conductor.

Geared towards higher education posi¬
tions with 75 percent of all applicants
having at least a bachelor’s degree,
Dave’ said she has observed an indi¬
vidual get a job with a base salary of
$80,000 annually. Since December of
1993 the system has registered 24,388
job candidates, (half are from Cali¬
fornia), and takes between 500 to 1,000
calls daily.

For those wishing to find employment
via this service, they have the option of
perusing positions by company, disci¬
pline, geography, new graduate posi¬
tions, or by date (when new positions
will become available). Currently the
board has positions available in
Arizona, California, Indiana, Michigan,
North Carolina, New Jersey, New
Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, and Texas, as
well as a few scattered international
positions.

Applicants can create customized
resumes online using a format that
allows users to cut and paste informa¬
tion and update their resumes as often
as they like. The system automatically
takes the log-in information, (name,
address, telephone number, etc.), and
applies it to the resume to save time. All
resume information remains confiden¬
tial.

For corporations, there is a separate
interface that allows would-be
employers to peruse applicants resumes.
After reviewing the resumes corporate
head hunters deposit them in different
files, depending upon which applies:
current interest, future interest and no
interest - all available for instantaneous
retrieval. In addition employers can
create up to four response letters that
can be sent to an applicant with a
keystroke. When an applicant logs in,
the replies will immediately be
displayed to them. Also, it is possible for
a company wishing to do so, to down¬
load all resumes to their existing
human resources database, for quick
and easy in-house circulation.

Dave’, born in Sholapur, India and
raised in Bombay, received a degree in
physics, with a minor in mathematics
from the University of Bombay, and
was working on her MBA at the Univer¬
sity of New Haven in Connecticut when
she discovered the world of computers
and just what they could do when
applied to the business world. She was
so intrigued by the possibilities that she
found, “I just didn’t want to do physics
anymore.”

After graduating with her MBA Dave’
worked for a local telephone company
for a short while before moving to
Rochester, Minnesota where her
husband was transferred while working
with IBM. She spent the next seven
years raising her two boys and doing
volunteer work - helping families, many
of them foreigners, to adjust to life in
the United States.

She ended up in Austin, Texas where
she did some computer consulting and
attended the University of Texas in
Austin where she dabbled in still more
computer classes. The couple moved to
Los Altos, California in 1986 where they
reside today.

In California, Dave’ worked primarily
as a free lance consultant and started
her own software support company,
Daves Consulting, Inc., in December
1990. During this time she realized the
possibilities of a company like Career
Connections, thinking that she could
place qualified applicants cheaper and
more efficiently than an employment
agency by doing it online. Wanting to
promote the “paperless concept,” Dave’
filed for the name Career Connections
in May of 1992.

From May through December, Dave’
researched the various BBS software
programs available and finally settled
on eSoft’s TBBS, because of the flexi¬
bility in creating her own menus and
ability to “minimize the variables that
could possibly go wrong.” With the help
of eSoft’s Karl Glasgow, who Dave’
described as “extremely helpful” in
setting up her system, Career Connec¬
tions opened for business six months
after settling on the software.

Likewise in configuring her Internet
connection later in the year, she found a
savior in Holonet’s Kurt J. Pires,
director of network operations, who
helped her a great deal with the config¬
uration of her Internet connection. The
system is set up with a Pentium P-90
file server and a DATABILITY VCP
1000 terminal server, linked to a
Livingston router processing their T-l
Internet feed.

One of the early corporate customers to
the service, Tencor Instruments, Inc.,
has found it to be quite an asset.
Suzanne Gardner, manager of employ¬
ment for Tencor, said she enjoys the
service for finding qualified applicants
for positions and “I really believe in
eliminating paper.”

Gardner added that since Tencor began
using the service in mid 1993, the
system has been improving all the time,
as has the quality, caliber and number
of applicants it reaches. Tencor, she
said, is all but eliminating the use of
outside head hunters and recruiters.

No fees are charged to the applicants as
corporate subscribers picking up the tab
for advertising their positions. In addi¬
tion, Dave’ said much of the advertising

Boardwatch - August 1994 111

for Career Connections is done by the
corporations who subscribe to the
service as a way for potential employees
to see all of the positions available in
their company.

While difficult to tell how many jobs
have actually been filled through the
service, (information is confidential to
the companies that advertise), Dave’
said, no corporation has left the system
since using its services, “They
absolutely love this tool.”

For more information about Career
Connections, modem in, telnet in, call
voice, (415)903-5800, or write: Career
Connections, 4546 El Camino Real,
Suite Z, Los Altos, CA 94022.

INFINITE BBSING

by Brian Gallagher

I f you can’t run with the big dogs, it’s
best to stay on the porch. Club
infinity BBS, (619)726-8878 - WOOF! If
bulletin boards were dogs this online
service ain’t no Chihuahua, it’s more
along the lines of a St. Bernard, Great
Dane, Irish Wolfhound mix - monstrous.
What makes this board such a formi¬
dable mongrel? A unique mixture of
three different software systems -
Galacticomm’s Major BBS, (the front
end or “top” menu), which runs with
Durand Communication’s photographic
database, DCNET, all of this resting
atop Clark Development’s PCBoard
which is the “main” system - a
Frankenstein set up if ever there was
one.

What this means to the user is a cornu¬
copia of choices. The Major part of the
system gives the board good multi-node
capabilities; while the PCBoard area
gives sysop, Dennis Di Toro, a better
file management system and greater
flexibility through the PPL program¬
ming language, allowing sysops to
customize software to particular wants
and needs. Durand Communication’s
photographic database, DC NET V.2.72,
is supported on the Major side, and to
really appreciate this system and the
advanced RIP graphics, I highly recom¬
mend downloading “infinity.exe” at
login, which is Durand’s Genesys
terminal program with Infinity’s icons
added in. The 20 minute download is
well worth the wait.

On the top menu you will encounter 21
RIP icons, all operated in the point and
click fashion of Windows. If you call this
board in ANSI you are doing yourself a

Sysop - Dennis Di Toro

great disservice, the RIP graphics are
first rate, and there are two RIP demo
shows, (one on each system), that really
give you an idea of just what can be
done with a little patience and a lot of
RIP. Still, for those ANSI aficionados,
there is also an ANSI demo that can be
viewed.

Speaking of viewing, the wanted
persons and missing children icons open
up an entire database of information
about individuals and also supplies
online viewing of pictures of them.
Right now there are approximately 65
children in the missing database and 75
desperados in the wanted database,
with more to come I am assured. Users
can search either database by a number
of different factors including, first and
last names, physical characteristics, and
rewards - if any, for would be bounty
hunters. For picture buffs the “Fun”
icon reveals over 100 miscellaneous
photographs of automobiles, girls,
planes, animals, fish, real estate and
lots more. Completing the visual array
are 23 color weather maps and satellite
pictures supplied by Planet Connect,
and updated every four hours.

Callers should note that while the
display says that up to ten pictures can
be displayed at the same time, without
substantial memory, it is easy enough to
crash your system while downloading
an image if you already have some
displayed. And, the download times
displayed for the pictures are really just
ball park figures, usually about half the
time it takes to really download the
image. Pictures can be resized to the
whim of the user by grabbing the lower
right hand corner of the image with the
cursor and “pulling” or “pushing” the
image to the desired size, and can be
moved by grabbing the top bar with
your cursor and dragging it to where
you would like.

For information hounds, digging up
data on most anything is only a mouse
click away. Di Toro said they compiled
information from no less than six
sources including USA Today, and cate¬
gorized the information under the
“BULLETINS/NEWS NOW!,”
“FINANCE AND WALL STREET,”
“SPORTS LINK!!,” “ENTERTAIN¬
MENT NEWS! AND REVIEWS” and
“MJR PUBS!” icons. The major publica¬
tions area includes 11 regular publica¬
tions including: The Sports Collector
Monthly, The Weekly High Tech Home
Magazine, Profit and Be Your Best to
name a few, with a special section called
the Monthly Grab Mag which has five
articles from five random magazines. At
this writing the Grab Mag publications
are: OMNI, Woman’s Day, Astronomy,
Sports Afield, and The Saturday
Evening Post.

112 Boardwatch - August 1994

For still more information the “Federal
Documents” icon, gives users a wealth
of government documents. The 1994
Federal Budget is available for those
wanting to see where it is their tax
dollars are supposed to go, accompa¬
nied by this week’s White House docu¬
ments, the NAFTA treaty, pending
health care bills, the fax numbers of
congress persons, and Clinton’s itin¬
erary - those looking to fill up a hard
disk shouldn’t have any trouble here.

For international travelers the “Travel”
option offers travel information for
those going abroad, including currency
exchange rates, non-emergency infor¬
mation for citizens traveling abroad -
marriage abroad, marriage to a
foreigner, acquisition of U.S. citizen¬
ship, international adoption, Romanian
adoption and others. Perhaps the most
important area here is the “Emergency
service for citizens traveling abroad.”
For this category the text recommends
contacting the Citizens Emergency
Center, a division of the State Depart¬
ment, at (202)647-5225.

Still haven’t got enough? No fear, follow
the icon labeled “TO MAIN SYSTEM”
(the PC Board half), and welcome your¬
self to 45 gigabytes of downloadable
files and for all intents and purposes
another BBS. While some of the infor¬
mation on the second half of the system
is repeated such as the News, and USA
Today areas, there are also several new
features here.

Upon entering the main system, users
will be prompted to automatically
download several McAfee virus scan¬
ners, before they actually get to the
main board. Again users will be
prompted for ID and password after
which the system will inform them if
they are lacking any of the latest icon
updates. Via the same automatic down¬
load as with the virus scanners, with
the click of an icon the system will auto¬
matically determine which icons are
needed, and download those specific to
their system. After this users will reach
an icon laden screen much the same as
the first - only different.

The biggest and arguably the best part
of the second half of this mongrel
system lies in the file areas and a
unique in-house retrieval and down¬
loading system which enables users to
view an exploded ZIP file and download
a particular file from within the ZIP,
rather than the entire thing which may
or may not be needed.

Online shopping is another feature on
the second half of the system, offering
users the opportunity to purchase
various gag gifts, adult toys, magazine
subscriptions, CDs and videos as well as
computer equipment. The system offers
19 different language settings including
German, Portuguese, Star Trek and
Government - truly some off-beat
completely foreign languages to be sure.

Throughout both systems a help icon
seems omnipresent, or just a menu
away. In addition, for new users not
used to the BBS world, an info button
at the bottom of the top screen provides
valuable information to make modem
traveling as pleasant and hassle free as
possible.

For now Internet access is surprisingly
lacking, but it is not due to lack of
effort. Di Toro is working through the
bureaucracy of his local telephone
company and getting a T-l, X-25s and a
possible ISDN connection knotted and
gnarled with red tape and meetings, but
he has high hopes of having 50 lines up
and running by the time this goes to
print, and to eventually run 4,000 or
5,000 lines, rivaling the major online
services for a fraction of the cost.

This may sound overly ambitious and
even naive to many, but, Di Toro is not
your average sysop, (if there is such a
thing). He is an entrepreneur in every
sense of the word. “I take opportunities
as they come,” he said, “I just grab
them.” Two years ago he was living in
Florida and running a wholesale car
dealership with a silent partner. The
pair decided that they wanted to pursue
something with a better growth poten¬

tial, something that was more
marketable, and they settled on BBSs
because, as Di Toro said, “Technology is
easy to sell.”

A self described “chance taker” Di Toro
began his quest to build one of the
biggest BBS systems around from the
very beginning. You see, he didn’t have
any computer experience what so ever
when he undertook this project in July
of 1992. Through 10 and 12 hour days,
seven days a week, he managed to learn
DOS, software packages and applica¬
tions, hardware set-ups and applica¬
tions, how to configure systems and the
gambit of telecomputing in just two
years.

By December of 1993 he was beta
testing the system and today he boasts
over 1,000 paid subscribers some of
them international. The system
supports five networks including,
FidoNet, NaNet, Rhyme, ILink, and
PCUSENET, and runs on nine 486 33s
and 66s with 56 CD ROMs. Subscrip¬
tions run on a credit system with 3600
credits running 75 cents, with the
average caller using 60 credits per
second, or about 75 cents an hour.
Premium time can run up to 1200
credits per second for adult access and
Internet when it is installed.

At this time local access numbers are
not provided, but that too may soon
change. For more information about
Club Infinity, call the board, or write to
them via snail mail: Club Infinity BBS,
attn: Dennis Di Toro, 3045 Via Del
Cielo, Fallbook, CA 92088.

Boardwatch - August 1994 113

DIGITAL LOGIC SYSTEMS

by Brian Gallagher

In the online world you are likely to run
into all sorts of different people who will
be telecommuting for all sorts of
different reasons. Some are out there
looking for investment opportunities,
some just want to know what it’s all
about, still others find it a viable source
of entertainment and social interaction,

Jerry McCarthy and his
daughter Lauren

and some people just end up there by
necessity and providence. Fitting this
last category to a tee, sysops Jerry and
Robin McCarthy operating their five
line, Digital Logic Systems BBS, (DLS),
(303)347-2921.

Jerry’s journey to the online world, the
Internet and beyond is a rather
circuitous route beginning in the Navy
where he gained much of the knowledge
that would eventually become his
career. By taking advantage of the
Navy’s tuition policy, he attended
Memphis State University and received
an associates degree in electronics tech¬
nology. The Navy put him to work as an
aircraft electronics technician. His tour
ended in November of 1985 and left him
in Hawaii where he stayed for three
years working for a defense contractor.

Looking for a better quality of life and a
lower cost of living led him to Colorado
where he initially worked for Auto¬
mated Business Systems as the support
manager for technical support
personnel, service technicians, and
programmers. While there, Jerry did
UNIX consulting in his spare time and
found he needed an electronic way to
communicate with his clients - where
they could download software patches
to assist their systems. On July 1, 1992
DLS opened up for business as a private
three line BBS running VBBS share¬
ware software.

Shortly after getting the board going,
Jerry moved to a new company, Wyse

Technologies, Inc., and a new position
as the Sales Engineer for the 19-state
Rocky Mountain Region. His new duties
focused on marketing larger computer
systems such as Windows NT and
UNIX. Recognizing a conflict of interest
when he saw one, shortly after getting
the board going for his private
consulting business he began dissolving
the private system by divesting his
clients - a project which he did not
complete until February 1993.

In the mean time, he and Robin decided
that since they already had the equip¬
ment they might as well go public with
the board, and they did. Their first step
was deciding which software platform to
use as VBBS just wasn’t cutting it.

To help the decision making process,
Jerry attended the first ONE BBSCON
show in 1992, held in Denver. At the
show his decision vacillated between
CocoNet - because he liked the UNIX
and graphics capabilities, and
Mustang’s Wildcat! which supported
Telegrafix’s RIP graphics. At the time,
CocoNet didn’t support ZModem, had
limited file libraries, and no system
management capabilities, which landed
Jerry with Wildcat! he said, “I knew it
would be better in the long run.”

By the end of November 1992 his board
was up and running in beta test. By
July of 1993, with free access to all, he
had over 200 callers monthly. Looking
to improve his system and keep up on
the happenings in the BBS realm, he
made plans to attend the second
ONEBBSCON in Colorado Springs.
When the August show date
approached, however, he was called
away on a business trip and it was his
wife, Robin, who attended the confer¬
ence instead.

Robin, who created all of the RIP
screens on the board and previously
worked as a technical recruiter, came

back from the show with valuable
marketing information. Applying what
she had learned from the sessions, the
BBS was written up in The Denver
Post, a major Denver daily newspaper
and a computer magazine. The
computer magazine, however, listed the
board as being based in Little Rock,
Alaska, rather than Littleton, Colorado,
flooding their telephone with questions
from Alaskans wanting to know how to
log on. At the same time the misin¬
formed article was in circulation the
board was listed in a local telephone
directory as a tanning salon - giving him
still more grief as tans still cannot be
obtained by phone lines.

In January of 1994, the couple worked
out a deal with a New York based
company to use the system to keep in
touch with approximately 100 Denver
based employees. The company trans¬
fers e-mail through the system, posts
vacation schedules, employee benefits
information, company policies and a
newsletter.

The pair began charging for access
in May of 1994 and have over 150 paid
subscribers to date, which Robin adds,
is just enough to cover the costs of the
phone lines, Internet charges, and
new shareware
CD ROMs. For
first time callers,
they offer a 30
day limited
access free trial
for those wishing
to see what is
there. With 450
callers taking
advantage of the
free trial access
monthly, Jerry
joked, “Appar¬
ently I still have
too much free
stuff.”

And the “stuff” the board carries is
what keeps callers coming back. With
the help of four co-sysops, Marc Bath¬
gate, Scot Edholm, Nelson Ingersoll,
and Jerry Koedam, the board’s file
areas are well-manicured, and

114 Boardwatch - August 1994

frequently updated with few if any
“dupes.” There are no upload/download
ratios, and it is mostly the Windows
shareware files that get downloaded -
almost three to one compared to other
files, Robin said. Other strong file areas
out of the 110 carried (comprising over
20,000 files) are UNIX, Windows NT,
psychic connection, U.F.O.s, and
hacking.

Both agree that it was the file areas
that first got people calling the system,
but the Internet seems to be a big pull
these days. The Internet DLS carries at
this time is e-mail and over 100 news-
groups, but they are looking to expand
that shortly after this year’s ONE
BBSCON, where Jerry anticipates
Mustang Software, Inc., will demon¬
strate Internet capabilities with the
Wildcat! system.

Robin, who watches the board and their
first child, seven month old Lauren Ann
when Jerry is at work, likes the fact
that many parents use e-mail to
communicate with their children who
are out of state attending college; she
also said the game door seems to be a
favorite. Her favorite part of the
Internet is the misc.kids newsgroup,
where she finds information about
chicken pox, the symptoms of fifth
disease and how to stop your child from
hurting themselves when they start
crawling - all valuable new-mom infor¬
mation.

She has also observed the emulation
that people call in under. She said that
while not many callers call in using RIP
graphics, once they do - they don’t go
back to ANSI. Other features of the
board are USA Today, an off-line mail
door and a time bank feature, allowing
callers who don’t use all of time they
have purchased to stock pile it for a
rainy day or transfer it to another user
if they wish.

Subscriptions to DLS come in a variety
of sizes and shapes. For $10, users
receive a two month full access trial
period with one hour per day access
time. For $14.95 per year, those users
primarily interested in Internet e-mail
and newsgroups, receive 15 minutes per
day, long enough to use an off-line mail
reader to keep up to date on worldly
happenings, and they can also download
one file per day. The DLSMEMBER
package, comes with a price of $24.95
per year giving callers full access for one
hour per day. A MEMBERPLS package
for $34.95 is also full access, but tacks
on an extra hour of online time for two
hours per day.

For more information about DLS, or to
subscribe, call the board, send e-mail to:
info@dlsinfonet.com, or write to them via
snail mail: Digital Logic Systems, attn:
Jerry and Robin McCarthy, 7931 S.
Broadway, STE 310, Littleton, CO
80122.

FCC WORLD

by Brian Gallagher

Out of some 57,000 BBSs in the United
States, a large percent of them duplicate
what it is the others are doing but, not
always. Carrying no shareware files, no
games, no pictures of pretty girls or fast
cars is FCC WORLD, (202)887-5718 of
Washington, D.C. This board is the
epitome of a niche bulletin board
stocking only files related to the FCC
and the immediate industry affected by
FCC policies and court decisions.

WOR

The two line board running Galacti-
comm’s Major BBS software is operated
by the law firm Smithwick & Belendiuk,
P.C. which, not surprisingly, is a law
firm dedicated solely to clients dealing
with FCC litigation. The firm was
formed in 1988 and utilizes the pair’s
35 years combined experience of prac¬
ticing communications law.

They settled on using Major BBS
because they were looking for a system
that would be as user friendly as
possible as many of their callers are not

what you would call avid BBSers, in fact
Belendiuk said, for many of their callers
this will be the first and perhaps only
board they ever call. The reason for this
is the rather specific information
carried on the system. “The FCC Daily
Digest is only of interest to a certain
class of people,” he said.

Besides the daily digest, the board
carries information concerning the
latest Supreme Court rulings dealing
with communications law, broadcast
actions and public notices, broadcast
applications, FCC releases concerning
cable, actual FCC forms in PCX
graphics format, documents concerning
mobile services, common carrier docu¬
ments, the TELECOM DIGEST, a
newsletter from Media Services Group,
Inc., and a newsletter from the law
firm, as well as a small but growing list
of free classified advertising.

In the classified ads, Belendiuk said,
you won’t find a ‘67 Chevy here, but a
‘67 three kilowatt Harris transmitter -
“you’re right on.” No kidding, looking
through the four or five classified ads
on the system reveals that for a cool
$250,000 you too can be the proud
owner of an AM/FM radio station in
Clarksburg, West Virginia; or for a
reporter in search of a job who knows
something about communications tech¬
nology, there is a position available in
Alexandria, Virginia.

The board opened up for business in
late May and has already fielded over
1,000 calls. The majority of advertising
about the board came through word of
mouth, some local trade magazines who
did stories about the system and an
Internet posting. The caller base is
spread throughout the 50 states and the
Virgin Islands.

The board was set up as a means for
disseminating FCC information quickly
and efficiently and to offer a forum for
discussion to those interested. “The
purpose isn’t to get clients,” Belendiuk
said, “It’s more of a service or a name
enhancer for us.” He adds that most of
the callers who browse through the 500
files currently available on this free
service are other communications
lawyers.

For more information about FCC
WORLD call the board, their voice line:
(202)785-2800, or write: FCC WORLD,
attn: Smithwick & Belendiuk, P.C.,
1990 M Street, NW, STE 510, Wash¬
ington D.C. 20036.

Boardwatch - August 1994 115

Internet UUCP Host List

BBN Technoloqv Services

$2,890 year

IDS World Network

$15 month

NEARnet

$1,000 registration fee

3 Franklin Rd

$80 6 months

10 Moulton Street

East Greenwich, Rl 02818

$150 year

Cambridge, MA 02138

Voice# (401)885-6855

Voice# (617)873-8730

Fax# (617)873-5620

(internet) nearnet-join@nic.near.net

CICNet

Fax# N/A

(internet) info@ids.com

IMS Intercom

6418 Symposium

Clinton, MD 20735

$20 month
$30 Connect fee

2901 Hubbard Street

$35 month

Ann Arbor, Ml 48109

$2.50 hour prime time

Voice# (301)856-2706

Voice# (313)998-6103

$2 hour non prime time

Fax#: (301)856-5974

Fax# (313)998-6105

$175 registration

BBS#: (301)856-0817

(internet) info@cic.net

CL2 global corp.

$30 per year plus

(internet) led@imssys.com

InfiNet

$15-45 month

3390 Spottswood Ave.

$0.10 per messaqe

Infinite Systems

PO Box 02138

$15 month flat rate

Memphis, TN 38111

FTP/Telnet $25.00 month

Voice: (901)452-3388

$1.50 per hour

Columbus, OPI 43202

Fax: (901)757-4050

Data: (901)327-8718

e-mail: internet.info@ci2globl.net

Clark Internet Services

$30 month

Voice# (614)268-9941

BBS# (614)268-3639
(internet) info@infinet.com

INTAC Access Corporation

$50 to activate

10600 Route 108

$264 annual

256 Braod Ave.

$30 month w/o newsfeed

Ellicott City, MD 21042

$25 registration

Palisades Park, NJ 07650

$2.00 hour newsfeed

Voice# (800)735-2258

Then Give the following
#(410)730-9764)

Fax# (410)730-9765

Data# (410)730-9786
(internet) info@ciark.net

Voice: (201)944-1417

Fax: (201)944-1434

Data: (201)944-3990
finger mfo@intac.com

ISLAND NET

$2.00 hour

CNS Internet Express

$10 monthly minimum

Victoria, BS

Voice# (604)479-7861

$75.00 setup

1155 Kelly Johnson Blvd.

$2.75 hour

BBS# (604)477-5163

Suite 400

$8.00 hour 800 service

(internet) mark@amtsgi.bc.ca

Colorado Springs, CO 80920
Voice# (719)592-1240

$35.00 registration

Maestro Technologies

$100 month

(800)748-1200

29 John St

$125 setup

Fax# (719)592-1201
(internet) info@cscns.com

Colorado Supernet

$3 hour

New York City, NY 10038

Voice# (212)240-9600

BBS# (212)240-9700
(internet) staff@maestro.com

Colorado School of Mines

1500 Illinois Street

$40 registration
$15 month minumum

MCSNet

$2.00 hour first 5 hours

Golden, CO 80401

3217 N. Sheffield

$1.00 thereafter in a

Voice #(303)273-3471

Chicago, IL 60657

calendar month

Fax#(303)273-3475

Voice# (312)248-UNIX

$15.00 month minimum

(Internet) info@csn.org

Fax# (312)248-8649

charge. $10.00/setup

CyberGate, Inc.

$20 month includes 10 hrs

BBS# (312)248-0900
(internet) info@mcs.com

662 South Military Trail

Deerfield Beach, FL 33442

$1 hour above 10 hrs
$50 setup fee

Merit/MichNet

$35 month

Voice# (305)428-4283

2901 Hubbard Pod G

$40 registration

Fax# (305)428-7977
(Internet) info@gate.net

Doyle Monroe Consultants

Free Thirty day trial

Ann Arbor, Ml 48105

Voice# (313)764-9430

Fax# (313)747-3185
(internet) info@merit.edu

267 Cox Street

Fludson, MA 01749

period. Variety of plans
starting as low as $5

MIDnet

$60 month

Voice# (508)568-1618

a month, wil never
exceed $150 a month

501 N Tenth Rm 124

Lincoln, NB 68588

$150 registration

Fax# (508)562-1133

(internet) info@dmc.com

DPC Systems

$15 Month

Voice# (402)472-8971

Fax# (402)472-8486
(internet) cfarnham@unl.edu

537 Cloverleaf Dr.

Monrovia, CA 91016

$2.00 hour
$25 registration

MRNet

$55 month

Voice# (818)305-5733

511 11th Ave South

$150 registration

Fax# (818)305-5735
(internet) connect@dpcsys.com

Global Connect

$30 month

Box 212

Minneapolis, MN 55415

Voice# (612)342-2570

Fax# (612)344-1716

497 Queens Creek Rd

No setup, no hourly

(internet) dfazio@mr.net

Williamsburg, VA 23185

Voice#: (804)229-4484

Neosoft, Inc

$54.95 per month

Fax#: (804)229-6557

Holonet

$6 month

3408 Mangum

Houston, TX 77092

Voice# (713 684-5969

46 Shattuck Square

$2-4 hour

Fax# (713)684-5922

Suite 11

$50 registration

(internet) info@neosoft.com

Berkeley, CA 94704

Voice# (510)704-0160
fax# (510)704-8019
(internet) info@holonet.net

116 Boardwatch - August 1994

Internet UUCP Host List

NETCOM

4000 Moorpark Avenue
Suite 209

San Jose, CA 95117
Voice# (408)554-8649
Fax# (408)241-9145
(internet) info@netcom.com

PANIX

Voice# (212)787-6160
(internet) info@panix.com

Pioneer Motherboard

1770 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02140
Voice# (617)646-4800

RAIN

Box 2683

Santa Barbara, CA 93120
Voice# (805)899-8610
fax# (805)568-2299
Data# (805)899-8600
(internet) rain@rain.org

The Dallas Infomart

1950 Stemmens Freeway
Suite 5001
Dallas, TX 75207
Voice# (214)746-4710
Fax# (214)746-4856
(internet) info@onramp.net

The Well

27 Gate 5 Road
Sausalito, CA 94965
Voice# (415)332-4335
Fax# (415)332-1669
(internet) info@well.sf.ca.us

$25 month low vol e-mail
$45 month USENET& mail
$60 month Telnet/FTP
$50 setup fee.

$2 hour

$10 month for a user
account

$24.95 month
#273 No installation

$50 month
$200 registration

$79 month
$75 Registration

$35 month
$1 hour
$50 registration

UUNET Technologies $36 month

3110 fairview park drive $2.60-5.60 hour

falls Church, VA 22042

Voice# (800)488-6384

fax# (703)204-8001

(internet) info@uunet.uu.net

VoiceNet/DSC Variety of services

17 Richard Road $35-500 setup

Ivyland, PA 18974 $5-150 monthly fees

Voice# (215)674-9290

Voice# (800)521-2733

fax# (215)674-9662

(internet) info@voicenet.com

XNet $1 hour

PO Box 1511 $5 month minimum

Lisle, IL 60532

Voice# (708)983-6064

BBS# (708)983-6435

(internet) info@xnet.com

ZONE 1 Network Exchange

Robert Forsythe
5800 Arlington Ave
Riverdaie, NY 10471
Voice# (718) 549-8078
Fax# (718) 884-7998
(internet) info@zone.net

Variety of services
$50-995 start up
$1-2 hour
$40-1290 month

Magibox

1873 Flidden Oaks Drive
Memphis, TN 38138
Voice# (901) 757-7835
Fax# (901) 757-5875
(internet) net.info@magicbox.net

$30 year packet e-mail
$25 annual live intnet
$25 month/15 free hours
$1.50/hour additional
Special Corporate Rate

The Nation’s Largest

Public Real Estate Network
is looking for Sysops in
various locations in the
U.S., Canada and Europe.
High profit potentiail
Call for details.

Visual Link tm
Telecommunications
(703) 667-6431 Voice
(703) 722-2086 Fax
(703) 722-0281 Data
mbayliss@visual.cscns.com

19.5 GIGs OF NEW FILES
CHAT LIVE WITH 100'S
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INTERNET ACCESS & FTP
24 SATELLITE DELIVERY
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Texas Online Magazine!

Boardwatch - August 1994 117

BOARDWATC

List of BBS

This listing comprises a list of those who compile and
maintain lists of bulletin boards, either by topical
category, or by some geographic area or definition -
often by area code. The primary bulletin board
system where the list can be downloaded electroni¬
cally is also included.

1 to

BBSLIST TOPIC

AUTHOR/EDITOR

CONTACT BBS

TELEPHONE

Creative Edge BBS

Kevin Brook

Connecticut AC 203

(203)743-4044

Handicap News BBS

Bill McGarry

BBS With Handicapped Focus

(203)926-6168

Generic BBS

Victor Laking

Known Networks

(204)475-5199

Generic BBS

Victor Laking

Manitoba, Canada List AC 204

(204)475-5199

Eskimo North

Bob Dinse/Nanook

Seattle AC 206A/Vest Washington

(206)367-3837

AmoCat BBS

Richard Langsford

Tacoma Washington AC 206

(206)566-1155

Orion Station

Art Tomlin

Puget Sound Area

(206)675-0565

Quicksilver BBS

Michael Schuyler

Kitsap County Washington

(206)780-2011

Street Corner BBS

Scott R. Bodeen

Maine 207

(207)442-0997

Anything Goes

Chris Mitchell, “Gomba”

Modesto, CA BBS List

(209)491-0782

Zen Den Systems

Jack Porter/Madera UG

Central California AC 209

(209)675-8436

The Gooey (GUI) BBS

David Shapiro

Graphical User Interface BBS

(212)876-5885

Downtown BBS

Ken Sukimoto

96 List - 9600+bps BBS

(213)484-0260

Blues Cafe

Mark Elson/Mike Shockley

Dallas/Ft.Worth BBS List

(214)638-1181

LGNP1 (login:BBS)

Phil Eschallier

Open Access UNIX Site List

(215)348-9727

Flip Flop

Jim Barry

Cleveland Area 216

(216)951-9134

KSI Public BBS

Joe McIntosh

Educational BBSs

(219)626-2150

KSI Public BBS

Joe McIntosh

Indiana BBSs

(219)626-2150

Coin of the Realm

D.Wendling/JS Christianso

Conservation/Nature BBS List

(301)585-6697

3WINKs BBS

Stan Staten

Ham/Amateur Radio BBS

(301)590-9629

HEX BBS

Richard Barth

Handicapped Issues BBS

(301)593-7357

Infinite Perspective

Frank Atlee

Desktop Publishing BBS

(301)924-0398

Talk Radio BBS

Vince Boehm/Dave Osburn

Delaware AC 302

(302)429-7667

Big Boy’s BBS

Willis Morrow

Colorado AC 303/719

(303)458-3832

The CatEye BBS

Douglas L. Moore II

Cave Exploration BBSs

(304)592-3390

Silicon Beach BBS

Eric Thav

South Florida Area 305/407

(305)474-6512

SOCAL Corner

Mike Hefferman

Southern California

(310)422-7942

Illusions BBS

Jim Walton

California AC 310

(310)804-3324

Tony's Corner

Horst Mann

Detroit Area 313

(313)754-1131

Fire Escape’s Dir

Beth Brooks

St. Louis AC 314

(314)741-9505

The RoadHouse BBS

Richard Holler

ASP BBS Member List

(317)784-2147

Computer Plumber

Arthur Petrzelka

Engineering Related BBS

(319)337-6723

Eagle’s Nest

Mike Labbe

Rhode Island Area 401

(401)732-5292

T-8000

Stephen Decarie

Alberta AC 403

(403)246-4487

The Quantum BBS

Jeremy Birkett

Calgary Alberta AC 403

(403)252-5119

OASIS

Online Atlanta Society

Atlanta Area 404

(404)627-2662

The INDEX System

Rodney Aloia

Atlanta Area 404

(404)924-8472

Valley Light BBS

Jay Michalik

Montana Area

(406)273-6399

Montana MediaNet

Chad Payne

Searchlight BBS Systems

(406)549-6325

Infinite Space Onlin

Lenny Lacuy

Orlando BBS List AC 407

(407)856-0021

BABBA BBS

Mark Shapiro

San Francisco Bay Area

(408)946-8592

Silver Streak BBS

Brad Blase

Baltimore BBS Area 410

(410)683-0300

Zuul’s Catacombs

Chas Stokes

Pittsburgh AC 412

(412)264-9787

Ameriboard

DP Mclntire/Beth Spotts

National BBS List

(412)349-6862

The Castle

Mark G.

Miwaukee Area 414

(414)327-5085

Natural Connection

Patrick O’Brien

North America Nudist List

(414)426-2110

Toledo’s TBBS

Ryck Zarick

Toledo Ohio Area 419/313

(419)475-2241

The Blue & The Grey

Bob Underdown

Arkansas Area 501

(501)444-8420

118 Boardwatch - August 1994

BBSLIST TOPIC

AUTHOR/EDITOR

CONTACT BBS

TELEPHONE

DawGone Disgusted

Lisa Gronke

Portland Oregon BBS

(503)297-9145

Southern Star BBS

Jeff Jones

New Orleans BBS List

(504)885-5928

MDC Computers BBS

Dan Kiehl

New Mexico Area Code (505)

(505)434-0258

Software Creations

Dan Linton

Apogee/ID/Software Crtns List

(508)368-7139

ponyXpress BBS

Ruben Melo

PCBoards on Internet

(508)587-7669

Miwok Village BBS

Jim Metzler

Worcester MA AC (508)

(508)754-6512

Treasure Island

James Cordani

Corpus Christi

(512)241-8358

Camel’s Back BBS

John Foster

Austin Area BBS List AC 512

(512)243-0077

J&J’s BBS

Joseph Caplinger & Son

Selected BBS

(513)236-1229

Long Island Exchange

Harold Stein

AC 516 Free Shareware BBS

(516)271-5303

Wolverine BBS

Rick Rosinski/SAMM

Area Code 517 - Mid-Michigan

(517)695-9952

Delight The Customer

Dennis Hauser

Business/Professional BBS

(517)797-3740

Majestic Royalty BBS

John Mendivil

Phoenix AC (602)

(602)278-1651

Cheese Whiz BBS

Sue Widemark

Phoenix AC (602)

(602)279-0793

The Commo Shack BBS

Kevin McCrory

Cochise County Arizona

(602)452-0587

Island Net

Mark Morley

Victoria/Vancouver AC 604

(604)477-5163

Kentucky Explorer

Jon Hagee

Kentucky AC (606)

(606)271-1451

JW-PC Dataflex.HST

Jim Wargula

Wisconsin 608

(608)837-1923

The Casino BBS

Dave Schubert

New Jersey AC 609

(609)485-2380

Praedo BBS

Wayne R. Morton

New Jersey Area 201/609/908

(609)953-0769

Black Bag

Edward Del Grosso

Medical Issues BBS

(610)454-7396

Abiogenetic BBS

Barry Watson

Minnesota Twin Cities AC 612

(612)774-8454

Way Out

Mike Shecket

Apple II BBS

(614)436-4846

SPDA Info Service

unknown

Tennessee AC 615/901

(615)952-5638

The Pacific Rim

Brenda Donovan

Female Sysops

(619)278-7361

ComputorEdge

Tom Grigg

San Diego, CA AC 619

(619)573-1675

General Alarm

Joe Nicholson

San Diego AC 619

(619)669-0385

pro-sol

Morgan Davis

Apple II BBS with Internet con

(619)670-5379

PC Power House

Eddie Gebhard

Virginia AC 703/804

(703)348-1423

OS2/Shareware BBS

Pete Norloff

OS/2 BBS Systems

(703)385-4325

NGS-CIG

Richard A. Pence

Geneology Related BBS

(703)528-2612

Moobasi Optics, Ink

Blaine Schmidt

Charlotte, NC AC 704

(704)541-9842

BDPA BAC BBS

Arthur McGee

Indigenous People BBSs

(707)552-3314

BDPA BAC BBS

Arthur “Rambo” McGee

Black Run/Oriented BBS

(707)552-3314

Royal Swedish Viking

Peter Anvin

Chicago

(708)491-9036

Risqilly BBS

Billy Kennedy

Gay & Lesbian BBS List

(708)495-6609

ChicAAgo Hangar

Rex Chadwell

Airline Pilot/JUMPSEAT BBSs

(708)980-1613

Atomic Cafe BBS

David E. Wachenschwanz

Houston Area 713

(713)530-8875

Korea America Online

Wayne Jeong

Korean BBSs

(714)449-9373

Logan’s Run

Tracy Logan

Rochester NY AC 716

(716)328-2914

Antarctica BBS

Mario Mueller

RIP BBS Listing

(717)755-2440

Cyberia

Adam Viener

717 AC BBS Listing

(717)840-1444

EarthArt BBS

Bob Chapman

Ecology/Conservation BBS

(803)552-4389

Wildcat! HQ

Jim Harrer

Wildcat! BBS

(805)873-2400

His Board

Larry Honore

Central California Area 805

(805)652-1478

Land’s End BBS

Brent Davis

Oahu Hawaii

(808)499-2527

Digicom BBS

Gary Barr

Technical Support BBS List

(812)479-1310

Mercury Opus

Emery Mandel

Pinellas/Tampa Florida AC 813

(813)321-0734

Sound Advice

Roy Timberman

Kansas City Area 816/913

(816)436-4516

Mysteria

Phil Hansford

Occult BBS

(818)353-8891

Night Gallery

John Rigali

Commodore 64/128/Amiga BBS

(818)448-8529

Seventh Dimension

Shawn Berry

Durham Region-Ontario Canada

(905)571-6052

Alaska Pirate Soc.

Patti Johnson

Alaska AC 907

(907)248-9364

AK Information Cache

Robert Southwick

Travel Related BBSs

(907)373-3205

Bob’s BBS

Bob Breedlove

Darwin National USBBS List

(916)929-7511

LiveNet 1:170/110

Dave Fisher

OS/2 Related BBS

(918)481-5715

ACCESS AMERICA

Linda Hargraves

Tulsa Oklahoma Area BBS List

(918)747-2542

Micro Message Svc.

Mike Stroud

Raleigh NC Area Code 919

(919)779-6674

Catalyst BBS

Henk Wolsink

Republic of South Africa

27-41-34-1122

The Warehouse BBS

Cesar Keller

Switzerland BBS List

41-1-492-5157

Boardwatch - August 1994 119

T 20 ARDWATC IT
MAGAZINE **

July 1994

r®

<<5>

Tele Lines

A°

v Y

<J°

313-537-6168

313-537-5942

313-255-2466

Amiga

Unlim

100

619-456-2002

619-456-0815

UNIX

1000

403-341-7826

403-347-3262

AMIGA

Unlim

918-496-7881

918-491-0033

918-496-8113

Windows

Unlim

313-774-2153

313-772-5802

313-772-6442

Amiga

Unlim

703-791-2910

703-749-2889

DOS

: I

416-299-4723

416-754-1856

416-609-2250

MAC

100

714-496-3774

714-493-3819

DOS

100

206-643-2316

206-643-7830

206-643-2874

MAC

514-489-1001

514-489-4966

514-489-0445

MAC

130

804-442-5865

804-442-5867

DOS/OS2

999

805-379-3210

805-379-1341

805-379-3450

OS/2

Unlim

209-836-2402

DOS

503-883-8099

503-883-7879

503-883-8197

OS2

999

714-379-9000

714-379-9014

714-379-9004

MAC

Unlim

214-528-4943

DOS

255

801-261-1686

801-261-8987

801-261-8976

DOS

1000+

516-938-0506

516-822-7396

Windows

Unlim

914-833-3479

914-833-3623

914-833-1479

DOS

999

612-537-8655

612-537-8613

612-537-8659

DOS

255

619-670-0563

619-670-9643

619-670-5379

APPLE II

801-756-2901

ATARI

913-441-1336

913-441-0596

913-441-0595

DOS

250

800-363-7626

819-685-0994

819-682-7771

DOS

255

414-962-5967

414-962-1097

DOS

514-345-9578

514-733-8644

514-345-8654

DOS

800-780-5483

216-631-9289

216-631-9285

DOS

Unlim

412-846-2700

412-846-5312

MAC

515-225-9552

515-225-8496

DOS

255

714-529-6328

714-529-9721

714-529-5313

DOS

250

303-699-6565

303-699-6872

303-699-8222

DOS

310-318-1322

310-318-2162

310-318-5302

UNIX

Unlim

714-669-9260

714-669-1383

714-730-5785

MAC

200

305-583-5990

305-583-7846

305-583-7808

DOS

256

716-924-8284

716-924-4193

DOS

207-941-9388

207-941-0805

DOS

255

303-444-7071

303-444-0035

303-642-7463

DOS

Unlim

210-787-2443

616-399-8934

616-399-4818

DOS/OS2

1024

805-873-2500

805-873-2599

805-873-2400

DOS

250

210-631-6090

210-631-5841

DOS

999

315-635-1882

315-635-1908

UNIX

Unlim

✓

CNet Pro 3
CocoNet

DLG Professional
Excalibur BBS
EXCELSIOR! Pro
Faulken
FirstClass
GAP

Hermes II

hi-BBS

Kitten

Magnum BBS

MEGAHOST

Multi-Net

Novalink Professional

OPUS-CBCS

PCBoard

PowerBBS

Powerboard BBS

ProBoard

ProLine

RATsoft ST

RemoteAccess

RoboBoard/FX

RyBBS

Sapphire

Searchlight BBS

Second Sight Software

SpitFire BBS

Synchronet

TBBS

TEAMate

Telefinder

The Major BBS

TinyHost

TriBBS

UltraBBS

Virtual BBS

Wildcat!

WWIV

XChange

Perspective Software
Coconut Computing, Inc
Telepro Technologies
Excalibur Communications, Inc
Sycom Design Software
INFO*Share, Inc
SoftArc, Inc
GAP Development Co
Computer Classifieds
XBR Communication
TelPro Technologies
Gilmore Systems
ASCII Computer Enterprises
Multi-Net Communications
ResNova Software Inc
214-528-4687
Clark Development, Inc
Power Computing
NUIQ Software, Inc
ProBoard International
Morgan Davis group
ROdent Laboratories Software
Wantree

Hamilton TeleGraphics
The Ryco Company
Pinnacle Software
Searchlight Software
FreeSoft Co.

Buffalo Creek Software
Digital Dynamics
eSoft, Inc

MMB Development Corp.
Spider Island Software
Galacticomm, Inc.

Bruce Krobusek
TriSoft

CDB Systems, Inc
Virtual Technologies
Mustang Software, Inc.

WWIV Software Services
Z/Max Computer Solutions, Inc

J
N
N
N

I N
I I
N I
I Y
N N
N N
N

I N
3 N
I N
N N
3 N
I 3
I N
I Y
I N
N N

3 N
N N

N N
3 3
N N
I N
I N
O N
O N
N N
Y Y
N N
O N
I Y
I I
I O
3 N
N N

Y $229.95

Y $18,995
$299
$349
$199
$999
$3450
$359
$95
$3400
$195
$900
$49
$895
?

Free
$10000
$189
$2300
$49

$159.95

$529

$400

3 N Y $175

$45

$399

$399
$1995

Y $125000

Y $2000
$10717
$25
$75
$75
$999

Y $799

$320

$229.95

$395

$299

$199

$149

$95

$79

$95

$70

$195

$75

$49

$195

$300

Free

$170

$99

$49

$159.95

$149

$95

$75

$45

$99

$199

$85

$99

$295

$2000

$425

$259

$25

$75

$99

$129

$80Z/Max

$695

Y = YES

N = NO

I = INTERNAL

O = OPTIONAL

3 = THIRD PARTY

R OARDWATC Tf

MAGAZINE

Advertise your electronic bulletin board/online information service in Boardwatch Magazine. Let our readers know who you are and
what you're doing with online technology. To order a BBS ad in the Boardwatch Classified BBS ad section, call the Boardwatch
BBS at (303) 973-4222 and use our online ad entry system. In addition to standard list information, enter up to 255 characters of
text describing your online service - all for $25 per month. Master Card or Visa only.

MicroSellar BBS (201)239-0001 Verona, New
Jersey since 03/83. Sysop: Mark Rapp. Using
PCBoard 15.2 with 11 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 5100 MB storage. Hayes at 28800 bps. No
fee. PCBoard 15.x alpha site. NJ’s preferred
BBS for the professional 11 yrs running.
HiSpeed lines for easy access. Gold mine of the
best-quality, latest files, games, info. Many mail
networks including Internet. Trial access
provided. Major credit cards.

Video Game Information Service (201)509-
7324“ Montclair, New Jersey since 10/90.
Sysop: Mark Astarita. Using Wildcat 3.9 with 3
lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 1100 MB storage.
US Robotics at 14400 bps. No fee. The premier
BBS for the Electronic Gamer. Home of the
World’s Largest Collection of Video Game Hints
and Cheats. All Game Related Echos from the
major networks. Great shareware files, from
Apogee, Epic, ID and more. Internet Accounts
available. VGIS.COM

Chat Chalet (201)791-8850 Saddle Brook, New
Jersey since 04/91. Sysop: Ronnie Meier. Using
MajorBBS 6.12 with 24 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 877 MB storage. Practical at 14400 bps.
$10.00 Monthly fee. “Where New Friends Meet”
(We get over 700 calls each day) Send us your
picture we will make you a GIF (FREE)

OMDBO'THE CORBOLTiE & GOLDFiNGER
GRAPHICS (201 >857-8601 “Verona, New Jersey
since 09/93. Sysop: Goldfinger. Using PCBoard
15 with 2 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 340 MB
storage. Zoom at 14400 bps. $14.95 Half Year
fee. Fully modified, constantly updated, with the
latest breakthroughs in adult imaging. You won’t
believe your eyes. Members recieve Free crystal
clear scanning. GFG distro site. We make our
own GIFS, games, PPEs, Icons, and more.
We’re online to satisfy.

®MDBO“BEACON STUDIOS BBS (201)863-

5253®MDNM“ Union City, New Jersey since
01/93. Sysop: Conrad & Scott. Using Major BBS
6.11 with 15 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with
15090 MB storage. Supra at 14400 bps. $.50
Hourly fee. Free trial period and Free downloads
to new users. NJ’s largest database of down¬
loadable files with 20 CD’s On-Line. Free 60
minutes daily for new users. Two national chat
linkups. InterNet, UseNet, FidoNet and
MajorNet.

Co-op Advertising Agreements have
been suspended effective with the
September 1994 issue. All classified
ads beginning with September 1994
issue will be priced at the normal
$25 rate.

Jezebel’s Parlour BBS (201)927-

2932®MDNM“ Flanders, New Jersey since
04/92. Sysop: Beverly Delisa. Using TBBS 2.2
with 12 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 3720 MB
storage. US Robotics at 9600 bps. $50 Annual
fee. Over 7 gigabytes of files, including adult
graphics. New in-house scanned Gif files added
each week. Online games and databases, user
to user chat, conference areas, and adult match¬
making. The BBS with the feminine touch.

The Starship ][ BBS (201)935-1485®MDNM“

Rutherford, New Jersey since 07/80. Sysop:
Philip J. Buonomo. Using TBBS 2.3 with 32 lines
on MS-DOS 80486 with 10000 MB storage. All
v.32bis Supportd at 19200 bps. $$0-75 No fee
req fee. Operating for 14+ years, Starship is one
of the longest running, most successful bbs
systems EVER! FREE public access, Adult &
non-adult topics, chat, files, games, &• data¬
bases. USR, Hayes, Telebit, v.32bis 19.2 kbaud
modems online, full internet access!

QUANTUM 2000 (201)991-9015®MDNM“

KEARNY, NEW JERSEY since 05/94. Sysop:
SAMANTHA WONG. Using Wildcat 3.91 M with
1 line on MS-DOS 80486 with 2000 MB storage.
PRACTICAL PERIP. at 19200 bps. No fee.
FREE TRIAL PERIOD. ONLINE GAMES...ON¬
LINE CD’S. HUGE ADULT SECTION, SPECIAL
CONTEST EVERY WEEK, WITH LOTS OF
GIVE-AWAYS.. GOOD FEMALE BOARD. 2:1
FEMALE TO MALE.THE BBS WITH A
FEMALE’S TOUCH.

ProStar Plus (206)941-0317®MDNM“ Auburn,
Washington since 01/88. Sysop: Robert Mich-
nick. Using MajorBBS 6.11 with 91 lines on MS-
DOS 80486 with 10000 MB storage. US
Robotics at 14400 bps. $.50 Hourly fee. Join the
best in the West, 200,000 files, MajorNet central
hub nightly national chats via InterLink, 75
games, national access from 500 cities, ProStar
After Dark for the over 18 crowd, free Internet
access, Seattle DateLine, real-time stocks and
more.

T-Shirts Online (207)865-1806®MDNM“

Freeport, Maine since 06/94. Sysop: Mike
DeVaudreuil. Using PCBoard 15.1 with 1 line on
MS-Dos Pentium with 540 MB storage. US
Robotics at 14400 bps. No fee. Upload your
favorite graphic file and we’ll custom print it on a
high quality t-shirt and mail it to you. High reso¬
lution, full color pictures. If you can see it on
your computer screen, we can put it on a t-shirt.

Exxxtacy Adult BBS (209)962-4045®MDNM“

Pine Mt. Lake, California since 04/86. Sysop:
Victoria Cummings. Using MajorBBS 6.12 with 4
lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 6000 MB storage.
US Robotics at 9600 bps. $25 Annual fee. 6
Gigs and over 20,000 latest hi-rez erotic files.
New member bonus. Free amateur x-rated
video to new members this month. Full access
and Free adult videotape only $25 a year. Visa
and mastercard accepted online. Call today, for
exxxtacy tonight.

The Invention Factory BBS (212)274-

8110®MDNM“ New York City, NY since 03/84.
Sysop: Michael Sussell. Using PCBoard 15.1
with 48 lines on MS-DOS/NOVELL-3.11 with
99999 MB storage. US Robotics at 28800 bps.
$15 Monthly fee. New York’s best BBS! Free
downloads for new users. More than 14 gig of
shareware and freeware. Internet/Usenet E-
mail. Large adult files area. Master/Visa/Amex.

The Digital Inn (303)296-1300“ Denver,
Colorado since 03/94. Sysop: Steve Adams.
Using TBBS 2.2 with 10 lines on MS-DOS with
17000 MB storage. Intel at 14400 bps. $10
Monthly fee. 18 CD ROM’s online, satellite
Internet/Usenet News Groups, Fido Echo Areas,
Internet Email. 'JSA Today, Boardwatch. Great
message areas, Ultrachat, games. FREE OPEN
HOUSE! Type “open” as access ID during regis¬
tration. Home of HotelNet online H&R services.

Colorado Connection (303)423-9775“ Arvada,
Colorado since 12/90. Sysop: Terry Rune. Using
TBBS 2.2 with 5 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with
800 MB storage. US Robotics at 14400 bps. $60
Annual fee. 16 CD-ROMs online, games,
Internet, FidoNet, EchoNet, Home of the Bird
Info Network, BirdNet, game contests, all RIP
system. Over 32,000 messages online, Board¬
watch Magazine, Colorado Weatherline,
VISA/MC online. Visit us today.

InfoPort (303)429-0291“ Denver, Colorado
since 12/93. Sysop: James Barry. Using
NovaLink Pro 3.1 with 5 lines on Macintosh with
1600 MB storage. Hayes at 28800 bps. No fee.
Your place for political discussion, political files
and political news. Rush Room. Full Internet
access available including telnet, mail and 100’s
of newsgroups. 1,000’s of Mac shareware files.
Home of NovaWorld Network. Macintosh
GUIclient & RIP

Boardwatch - August 1994 121

THe GaRBaGe DuMP BBS (303)457-1111"

Albuquerque, New Mexico since 12/90. Sysop:
Dean Kerl. Using MajorBBS 6.21 with 100 lines
on MS-DOS 80486 with 10300 MB storage.
Hayes at 2400 bps. No fee. HUGE BBS featuring
Chat, Message Forums, MailLink/MajorNet,
Internet Mail and Newsgroups, CMidnight Driver
Data Super Highway (212)750-3643" New York
City since 07/93. Sysop: Dave Lew. Using
PCBoard 15.1 with 4 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 3000 MB storage. Hayes at 28800 bps.
$59.95 Annual fee. Free Internet mail and Usenet
news. Over 866 Usenet newsgroups and
increasing every day. 2 CD-ROMs with tons of
Shareware. Lots of games including the latest
Apogee wares. The best buy around. Come
cruise by and see what all the excitement is
about.

Midnight Driver Data Super Highway (212)750-
3643" New York City, New York since 07/93.
Sysop: Dave Lew. Using PCBoard 15.1 with 4
lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 3000 MB storage.
Hayes at 28800 bps. $59.95 Annual fee. Free
Internet mail and Usenet news. Over 800 Usenet
newsgroups and increasing every day. 2 CD-
ROMs with tons of shareware. Lots of games
including the latest Apogee wares. The best buy
around. Come cruise by and see what all the
excitement is about.

Metro Online Entertainment System (212)996-
3664" New York City, New York since 01/86.
Sysop: Jeffrey Rader. Using MajorBBS 6.21 with
64 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 1000 MB
storage. Multitech at 14400 bps. $10 Monthly fee.
Long Island callers local number (516)796-1063,
national local access available from SprintNet.
World Link Chat 24 hours a day. Matchmaker,
chat, large download library, single and multi
player games, Internet email and newsgroups.

BCS BBS (213)962-2902" Los Angeles, Cali¬
fornia since 03/92. Sysop: Jim Lee. Using
Wildcat 3.90P with 6 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 2500 MB storage. US Robotics at 14400
bps. $52 Annual fee. Los Angeles’ premium BBS.
Full subscription. ILink, Cal-Link & internet,
Usenet. Quality files only. New services regularly
added. All major credit cards. 6 high speed lines
and growing rapidly.

Digital Universe Online

513 - 860-1191

Free Access For Sysops_ C-incinnabi

IconUpDater - The Best icon
scanner/updater available.

The World of BOB - A totally
RIPPED out mulit-line, role playing,
adventure game for all to enjoy. Icon
animation & Multi-Player. A must for
BBSes. - ... and 6 other great programs
with full RIP supoport.

Call for DEMOs and Demo Keys.
Immediate Online Registration with
Visa & MC. Call Ryan Andersen at
513-860-9669 (voice) for more info.

HNVom RIP screens available
■Don't Miss the RIP. Call with RIPterm.

THE ANARCHIST’S BBS (214)289-8328" Dallas,
Texas since 06/93. Sysop: Alan Bradshaw. Using
Spitfire 3.4 with 5 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with
1500 MB storage. US Robotics at 14400 bps. No
fee. Categories include: bombs, computer
hacking, drugs, fake ID, firearms, fraud and con
games, investigative techniques, locksmithing,
phone phreaking, political, revenge, sex, surveil¬
lance, and survival. Encrypted email. No ID verifi¬
cation.

THe GaRBaGe DuMP BBS (214)644-6060"

Dallas, Texas since 12/90. Sysop: Dean Kerl.
Using MajorBBS 6.21 with 100 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 10300 MB storage. Hayes at 2400
bps. No fee. Hugh BBS featuring chat, message
forums, MailLink, MajorNet, Internet email and
newsgroups, CD-ROM file library, games, online
trivia. Adults only, uncensored chat and message
areas. Our motto says it all: Caution! Adults at
Play. Voice 505-294-4980.

Clockwork the BBS (215)546-7088" Philadel¬
phia, PA since 05/93. Sysop: Sloan. Using
MajorBBS 6.21 with 19 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 1200 MB storage. US Robotics at 14400
bps. $10 Monthly fee. FIRST MONTH FREE!! We
offer ChatLink and MajorNet. We also have over
6 Gigabytes of Shareware and Freeware avail¬
able from CD-ROMs and many other files,
including MAC, on disk. PLUS we have over 20
online multi-player games. We support RIP.

The Magic Bus (215)628-2646" Ambler, Penn¬
sylvania since 06/93. Sysop: Matt Payne. Using
MajorBBS 6.11 with 08 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 850 MB storage. Zyxel at 19200 bps. $5
Monthly fee. PHILADELPHIA’S FASTEST
GROWING BBS! 8 lines up to 19.2. 15 games
including Swords and Sorcery, International chat
every night, World-Wide Mail Transfers using
Mailink, 6 CD-ROM’S online, and much more!

The Anterra Network (215)675-3851" Hatboro,
Pennsylvania since 03/90. Sysop: Steve
Ferguson. Using Wildcat 3.9 with 5 lines on MS-
DOS 80486 with 10800 MB storage. US Robotics
at 16.8 bps. $5 Monthly fee. Philadelphia area’s
largest BBS. Over 53,000 files and 700 message
conferences from FidoNet, WildNet, ThrobNet,
AdultNet, EINet, and RimeNet. The best game of
Trade Wars in the 215 area code.

—-4" fantasy

f -—^

CD-Rom/Multi-media/Adutt

Nightowls 12 (new)

$30

Software Vault Platinum

$22

Software Vault Emerald (new)

$24

7th Guest

$45

Lawnmower Man

$49

DOOM! Registered

$42

Rebel Assault (w/o box)

$34

Ultima VIII: Pagan on CD

$62

* T & A to the Maxx

$18

*Fao Gold 1, 2 or 3

$29

* Barlow Affairs (Interactive)

$34

* Nova Adult Volume 1, 2 or 3

$19

QModemPro for Windows

$87

Best of Perfect Vision CD $49.95

Call or write for a free product guide

Fantasy Land Voice 217-566-3723

PO Box 320 Fax 217-566-3512

Williamsville, IL 62693 BBS 217-566-3775

* Adult CD’s - MUST be Over 21
^ MC/VISA/CHECK/MO/COD

^OX)' C Rom/9Vu[ t i-FHe<f> a

The Round Table (215)678-0818" Reading,
Pennsylvania since 03/90. Sysop: Dan MCCoy.
Using PCBoard 14.5a with 7 lines on MS-DOS
80386 with 2500 MB storage. US Robotics at
14400 bps. $20 Annual fee. Free two week
access for all. Engineering & AutoCad specialty
system. 50,000+ files technical, Windows, DOS
util & more. 400+ qigs on 6 networks. USA
Today, games, & news. Member USN and ASP.

ONIX (215)879-6616“ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
since 04/87. Sysop: Jeff N. Miller. Using
MajorBBS 6.12 with 20 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 2550 MB storage. US Robotics at 21600
bps. $15 Monthly fee. Philadelphia’s friendliest
BBS. 38 multi-player games. Files for IBM,
Amiga, MAC, Windows. Local & national chat
lines. Internet, Usenet, Majornet, Worldlink. RIP
support. 30 days free for new members. King of
Prussia: (610)992-1720

32 Bit Bus Flight Sim BBS (215)949-2701"

Levittown, Pennsylvania since 10/90. Sysop: Bob
Bernstein. Using PCBoard 15.1 with 4 lines on
MS-DOS 80486 with 4000 MB storage. US
Robotics at 14400 bps. $15 Annual fee. Dedi¬
cated to Flight Simulation. Extensive file areas
covering Flight Sim 4 and 5, Falcon, Fleet
Defender, Strike Eagle and more.. Mail networks
include FIDO, RIME, USENET, and SIMNET
which is dedicated to Combat Simulators.
Subscribe via Billing.

PC-Ohio PCBoard (216)381-3320" Cleveland,
Ohio since 09/85. Sysop: Norm Henke. Using
PCBoard 15.1 with 50 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 15000 MB storage. US Robotics at 14400
bps. $52 Annual fee. Best BBS in America and
Boardwatch Top 10 System. Planet Connect
satellite connection. 22 Email networks including
the Internet as pcohio.com. 100,000 files, 250
game doors, 5000 conferences. Hayes V.FC
28800 modems at 216-691-3030.

Homes OnLine, Inc. (216)562-4006" Cleveland,
OH since 06/94. Sysop: Paul Moon. Using
MajorBBS 6.12 with 2 lines on Novell DOS 7
80486 with 250 MB storage. US Robotics at
14400 bps,. No fee. Searchable database of real
estate for sale with online color photos. Adver¬
tising is open to the public & agents. We do all
the scanning & data input for you. Call 1-800-
896-9002 (voice) for advertising info.

meet hot adults on

Lifestyle
OnLine

Where Couples & Singles
meet! Swinging/B&D/S&M/Bi/TV/Fetishes
The hottest CHAT BBS in the United States.

• Personal Questionaires • Hot erotic stories

• 1600+ calls/day • 2,000+ active members

MODEM: (516) 689-5390

Also Try

GPAFIX

World’s best source for XXX computer pictures
hot enough to melt your modem.

MODEM: (516) 689-2853

Local access from 1000+ cities.
Super Hot & Super Cheap!

64 line Oracomm® systems

122 Boardwatch - August 1994

The Scientist’s and Musician’s BBS (216)639-
9508" Concord, Ohio since 01/90. Sysop: Soo
Kurz. Using PCBoard 15.1 with 10 lines on MS-
DOS 80486 with 14000 MB storage. Hayes at
14400 bps. $50 Annual fee. Science and music
powerhouse. Medicine, engineering, MIDI,
programming, FSNET, MIDIIink, Internet with
Usenet, huge adult area, games, doors, some¬
thing for everyone, limited free access, $10 full
access trial subscription.

Flip Flop (216)951-9150" Cleveland, Ohio since
03/89. Sysop: Jim Barry. Using Searchlight 4.0
with 4 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 340 MB
storage. v.32bis at 14400 bps. No fee. We don’t
have alot of rules. Just treat the other users with
respect. Home of the Wine Cellar Cleveland BBS
List. Free. What’s the catch? There isn’t one.
Then who pays for this ad? Oh, that crazy Sysop
Jim. Figures. See you on the Flip Flop.

Fantasy Land BBS (217)566-3775” Williamsville,
Illinois since 12/91. Sysop: Steve Horrighs, Jr.
Using PCBoard 15.1 with 3 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 7000 MB storage. US Robotics at
16800 bps. $30 Annual fee. Simply the best. 5+
Megs added daily. Lots of doors. Thousands of
message echos from more than 9 national mail
networks w/ 3 adults only networks. 1/3 of files
online are adult related. Fast online instant
upgrades with VISA, MC.i Download on first call.

ComChat Online Services (218)847-8340"

Detroit Lakes, Minnesota since 11/93. Sysop:
David W. Johnston. Using MajorBBS 6.0 with 60
lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 210 MB storage.
Hayes at 2400 bps. $7.50 Monthly fee. We don’t
do files, we do chat. We don’t do forums, we do
chat. We’re dedicated to chat nationwide. No
linkups. ANSI & RIP support. Mon-Fri 8:00pm-
7:00am EST all day Sat and Sun. Local access
available in over 600 cities. Voice phone 218-
847-4980.

Asia Club (301)203-0281" Washington, DC
Metro Area since 03/94. Sysop: Alex Clarke.
Using MajorBBS 6.2 with 4 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 350 MB storage. Supra at 14400 bps.
$69.95 Half Year fee. Featuring an exclusive
penpal filebase of beautiful Asian ladies desiring
American men for correspondence, friendship, or
romance. GIF photos and bio-data. Call to down¬
load free samples.

D-ROM File Library, Games, Online Trivia!
Adults only, uncensored chat and message ares.
Our motto says it all: CAUTION! ADULTS AT
PLAY! Voice 505-294-4980.

The File Bank, Inc. (303)534-4646" Denver,
Colorado since 01/93. Sysop: Bartee & Wester-
berg. Using TBBS 2.2 with 22 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 21000 MB storage. Hayes at 28800
bps. $10 Monthly fee. ASP Approved BBS & one
of the finest collections of IBM-Compatible Share¬
ware. Many free download areas including exten¬
sive libraries of Astronomy Software & Data files.
Message Areas, Online Games, Chat. VISA, MC,
AMEX, Discover Welcome. Voice: 534-4538.

Sound Doctrine Institute’s BBS (303)680-7209

Aurora, Colorado since 01/87. Sysop: Tim
Williams. Using TBBS 2.2 with 4 lines on MS-
DOS 80386 with MB storage. AT&T at 19200
bps. No fee. Totally free! {Luke 16:13} 4+gig of
files. You can order free items while on-line. Also
check out the suffering Christian alert area.
Where non-believers can ask the questions their
Christian friends wish they wouldn’t. Internet
@ sdoct.com.

The Nine Muses BBS (305)720-1382" N. Laud¬
erdale, Florida since 04/94. Sysop: Jim Jones.
Using MajorBBS 6.12 with 8 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 4500 MB storage. ZyXel at 16800
bps. $.50 Hourly fee. FREE trial period. National
Chat linkups 5 nights a week. Chat with 100’s of
others. Over 4 gig of files on-line with no
up/dnload ratio. Daily news and monthly publica¬
tions. Over 200 MajorNet forums. Online multi¬
player games. Much more soon! Call now!

Data Highway (305)797-9841" Ft. Laud, FL since
04/94. Sysop: C. Goodale. Using MajorBBS 6.12
with 4 lines on Pent, with 1250 MB storage. US
Robotics at 14400 bps. $5-15 Monthly fee.
Catering to the working/after work professionals,
and non- professionals who want to network,
research, or just relax with games or chat online.
Internet, Majornet, and other netmail coming
soon(as of 6/3/94). Full internet access will be
online, also.

The LINK BBS (310)459-1264" Los Angeles,
California since 09/93. Sysop: Samuel Koh.
Using Wildcat 3.91 M with 4 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 8000 MB storage. Hayes at 28800
bps. No fee. FREE Access to Internet! Free
membership to California’s BEST System! We
have it all! News, Stocks, Weather, Magazines,
Business, Hobbies, Computers, & Shopping.
Local Access to (213)-(818)-(310) Areacodes.
Call Today and LINK to the Future today!

Illusions (310)804-3324” Lakewood, California
since 04/91. Sysop: Jim Walton. Using PCBoard
15.1 with 4 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 900 MB
storage. Complete PC at 19200 bps. $45 Annual
fee. Live chat, Internet, USEnet mail, news-
groups, CD-ROM online, no ratios, multi-player
games, active conferences, FidoNet, new files
added daily, online databases, one of LA’s
hottest systems. Free 45 day trial, V/MC
accepted, your Complete service.

THUNDERBOLT! (312)248-4822" Chicago, Illi¬
nois since 02/91. Sysop: Zeus. Using MajorBBS
6.21d with 10 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with
16000 MB storage. US Robotics at 14400 bps.
$10 variable fee. “Where the GODS come to
play..’’ mythology-themed BBS! MajorNet, NetAc-
cess netmail, ChatLink, InterLink, Interactive
Games, Oracles, Online News/Magazines, RIP
Graphics, INTERNET access & MORE! FREE
demo access. Rates low as $0.01/hr. Family
rates, too!

Compu-Erotica (312)902-3599” Chicago, Illinois
since 07/84. Sysop: Tiger. Using Custom 5.5 with
32 lines on DEC VAX 3500 with 1500 MB
storage. US Robotics at 38400 bps. $.15 Hourly
fee. If you like your chat HOT, you’ll LOVE
CEBBS! Alternate lifestyle chat-conferences,
erotic shopping, active party calendar, unique
chat features, internet mail and MORE! Chicago’s
premier adult BBS with over 500,000 served!
Women FREE after v/v. V/MC/D.

One Eyed Jack’s (313)399-2845" Oak Park,
Michigan since 09/93. Sysop: Jack. Using TBBS
2.2 with 3 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 2500 MB
storage. Hayes at 14400 bps. $.35 file fee. Adult
oriented BBS, with the first time user in mind.
Extremely easy to operateOver 15,000 files on
line, including HOT graphics, games, and Text.
Many original graphics on line. All preferences
welcome at One Eyed Jack’s!

4 ********************************** #

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STATEMENT. 1

CD-ROM DOOR

EZ-ROM is a CD-ROM file download door
for any DOS UART BBS. Uses DOOR.SYS
standard door drop file. Database logs caller
activities and limits downloads on any BBS.
Uses plain ASCII text file lists as supplied on
most CD-ROM disks. Fast easy setup.

•Multi-Node. Runs up to 100 disks.
•DATABASE logs and limits downloads.
•Automatic REQUESTS from offline disks
•File tagging. Fast text search.

•Online ZIP and Text file viewer.

•Insert BBS ads into ZIP files on-the-fly.
•Batch downloads using X, Y, orZmodem.
•Local copy-to-hard-drive mode.

•Supports Pioneer multi-disk changers.
•Chat. Drop to Dos. Ansi/Ascii graphics.
$30 (US Dollars) Check, Visa, MC

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Call for Fast Online Registration:
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BBS Node Two 203-924-5603

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800-435-6779

Boardwatch - August 1994 123

AdventureSource (313)953-8666' Livonia,
Michigan since 06/94. Sysop: Mark Williams.
Using MajorBBS 6.2 with 8 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 1200 MB storage. Supra at 14400
bps. $50 Annual fee. Dedicated to Kids of any
ages. No adult files, supervised. Have your kids
dial-up! Thousands of shareware titles - sci-fi,
arcade, adventure, educational games. RIP fully
supported. Teleconference, E-Mail, and online
games. Free trial & free downloads!

The Finish Line BBS (313)953-9429" Livonia, Ml
since 10/93. Sysop: Dale Atkin. Using Wildcat
3.90M with 2 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 750
MB storage. Hayes at 28800 bps. No fee. Racing
related BBS with 9 CD’s. FREE access to ALL.
CrossNet, FidoNet, FREE Internet E-mail.
Apogee and Software Creations dist. site., SDN,
doors games, 60,000+ files. Full access first call!
Come and join the fun.

Paridise Graphix (315)732-0371" New Hartford
New York since 04/94. Sysop: Tom Zalewski.
Using Wildcat 3.9 with 2 lines on MS-DOS with
1300 MB storage. Boca Research at 14400 bps.
$24.99 Annual fee. Specializing in Adult Graphics
Featuring TIFF images, Online Adult Games.
New Scans added Monthly.

Late Nite (402)291-6164" Omaha, Nebraska
since 12/89. Sysop: John Patrick. Using PCBoard
14.5a with 10 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 8500
MB storage. US Robotics at 14400 bps. $3
Monthly fee. GIFs (33,000+ HiRez Adult), Share¬
ware, Online Games and much more.
Nebraska’s #1 mature GIF source. Home of the
LNxxxnnn.GIF series.

The INDEX System TBBS (404)924-8472“

Woodstock, Georgia since 04/83. Sysop: Rodney
A. Aloia. Using TBBS 2.2 with 32 lines on MS-
DOS 80486 with 5000 MB storage. Hayes at
28800 bps. No fee. This is a BBS for the Serious
Modem’er! Internet, FidoNet, Games, Chat, Files
Messages, on one of Atlanta's oldest and largest
BBS’s. Great fun. Local to Athens and LaGrange,
GA. Operated by INDEX, the place to buy BBS
S/W.

The Adult BBS
Guidebook

1993 Edition

By Billy Wildhack

Still the latest , greatest edition.

Get your copy of the first book to
map out the world of cybersex.

♦ 128 pages.

♦ Helpful intro for new users.

» 100+ boards listed by state.

♦ Up-close look at 45 of the hottest
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♦ Locate boards that fit your budget
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Send check or M.O. to:

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Florida’s Real Estate Man BBS (407)631-5543"

Cocoa, Florida since 06/93. Sysop: Wes Caswell.
Using PCBoard 15 with 2 lines on MS-DOS
80386 with 200 MB storage. Wang at 14400 bps.
No fee. Featuring reposed and bargain real
estate, HUD and VA resales, and VISUAL LINK
the international photo data base show case of
homes. ONLINE viewing of homes for sale all
over the United States and the world! CD files
and more. Florida's Foreclosure BBS!

The Outdoor Sportsman BBS (407)635-9590“

Cocoa, Florida since 07/92. Sysop: John
Cornelius. Using PCBoard 15.1 with 2 lines on
MS-DOS 80486 with 1200 MB storage. Hayes at
28800 bps. No fee. Fishing,Hunting, Diving &
other outdoor related activities. Quality file selec¬
tion. Ripscrip support. Hayes 28.8k V.FC modem.
All welcome, not just the outdoor person.
Growing quickly. Plus more.

The Ride (408)399-4515" Los Gatos, California
since 06/87. Sysop: Tex. Using MajorBBS 6.21
with 14 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 30000 MB
storage. US Robotics at 14400 bps. $.50 Hourly
fee. The Ride BBS chat system offering systems
in both Los Gatos and Sonora, (209)536-1555.
The Ride BBS has a full file base system along
with most of the popular games. See you online.
Adults only.

Nitelog BBS (408)655-1096“ Monterey, Cali¬
fornia since 02/89. Sysop: Karl Van Lear. Using
PCBoard 15.1 with 24 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 8400 MB storage. US Robotics at 21600
bps. $28 Quarterly fee. DOS, Win 3x, OS/2,
UNIX, MAC and Adult files. Internet EMail,
Usenet, RIME, ILink & Fidonet conferences.
National weather maps updated 8 times daily.
Online realtime CHAT. All major credit cards
accepted. 600 to 700 new files added weekly.

HouseNet (410)745-2037" St. Michaels, Mary¬
land since 05/91. Sysop: Gene Hamilton. Using
Wildcat 3.90 with 4 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with
1080 MB storage. US Robotics at 14400 bps. $30
Annual fee. The only BBS with expert home
repair and remodeling advise and hundreds of
files for downloading. 80+ conference areas.
ASP, Internet, RIME, FidoNet. Full access on first
call, friendly sysops, quarterly newsletter, monthly
giveaway, 30 min. free a day.

EARN

$100,000

A YEAR

With your Bulletin Board

A HANDS - OFF BUSINESS

LOG onto our DBS & download details & referrals.

BBS 407-547-8759

WORLD CLASS SOFTWARE, INC
245 ELWA PLACE,

WEST PALM BEACH, FL, 33405

PHONE 407-585-7354
FAX 407-547-1703

SPRINGBOARD. (415)327-4591" Menlo Park,
California since 05/93. Sysop: Wendie. Using
MajorBBS 6.2 with 8 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 850 MB storage. AT&T Paradyne at 14400
bps. $9.95 monthly fee. Stay Current and
Involved! Issues & action focus. Reuters/AP
News; Internet e-mail and forums; unique local
forums with emphasis on what’s happening, who
to contact, and how to get involved from Arms
Control to Zagreb. Issues-oriented files.

STUDSNet (415)495-2929" San Francisco, Cali¬
fornia since 07/87. Sysop: Spuds McKenzie.
Using Wildcat 3.91 with 24 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 8000 MB storage. Microcom at 28800
bps. $10 Monthly fee. STUDSNet Central - The
worlds largest exclusively gay computer network.
Add value to your system, connect to 50,000+
men and wimmin world-wide. Daily mail transfers,
net-wide matchmaker and 50+ forums to choose
from.

INTIMATE IMAGES ONLINE (415)598-0898"

Redwood City, California since 02/94. Sysop:
Fred Austin. Using Wildcat 3.60P with 10 lines
on MS-DOS 80386 with 1200 MB storage. US
Robotics at 16800 bps. $35 Half Year fee.
Specializing in scans of our own original adult
photography. Video for Windows Clips from our
own original videos. Home of the Women of PBG.
Custom adult image production services available
for your BBS. No recycled magazine scans!

The Travel Connection! (415)691-0954“ Mt.

View, California since 01/94. Sysop: George
Ouzts. Using WildCat 3.9 with 1 line on MS-DOS
80486 with 500 MB storage. Multitech at 14400
bps. No fee. Travel news and information; travel
partners; several online travel databases
including Bed & Breakfasts; travel photo library;
post, download postcards; share travel experi¬
ences; travel advisories, warnings; tourist infor¬
mation; more.

ComputerLink Online Incorporated (416)233-

5410" Toronto, Ontario since 05/92. Sysop: Bill
Campbell. Using MajorBBS 6.21 with 66 lines on
Pentium Network with 15000 MB storage. US
Robotics at 19200 bps. $8.90 Monthly fee.
Canada’s largest graphical BBS.Featuring over
120,000 files with unlimited downloading,new
files daily via satellite feed, Internet and
Majornet,Tradewars 2002,adult files, online
conversation,FREE new user seminars,Free trial
memberships. Voice:233-7150

124 Boardwatch - August 1994

BAUDEVILLE BBS (416)283-0114' Toronto, ON,
Canada since 03/92. Sysop: Ian Evans. Using
PCBoard 15.1 with 2 lines on OS/2 80486 with
2000 MB storage. US Robotics at 14400 bps. $48
Annual fee. 2300+ USENET areas, RIME,
Intelec, Nanet, C2C, Racenet, ILink, Medianet,
Fidonet. File collection includes 400MB+ of OS/2.
The Economical Email Emporium. $48 member¬
ship gets you $185 in hw/sw coupons! Send
email to info@bville.gts.org for more details.

The Ebony Shack BBS (419)241-4600“ Toledo,
Ohio since 04/89. Sysop: Omega Starr. Using
Remote Access 1.11 with 4 lines on MS-DOS
with 400 MB storage. Intel, Boca at 19200 bps.
$20 > Annual fee. Org. ADULT GIF’s, and anima¬
tions. Emphasis on minority models. CD’s on-line.

The U.S.A. BBS (501)753-8575“ Little Rock,
Arkansas since 02/93. Sysop: Jeff Johnson.
Using TBBS 2.2 with 16 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 10200 MB storage. AT&T at 19200 bps. No
fee. Most popular computers supported. DOS,
Windows, & OS/2 files. Many games. One ofthe
largest collections of Adult GIFS as well as scenic
GIFS. Large adult area. Also many other sections
including Religion, Kids, Business. Contests with
v32bis modems

HomeNet (508)263-6135“ Acton, Massachusetts
since 11/93. Sysop: Matthew Handelman. Using
TBBS 2.2 with 4 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with
100 MB storage. Supra at 19200 bps. $60.00
Annual fee. Focuses on issues of concern to
homeowners and home buyers. Connected to
Internet newsgroups and e-mail. When should
you plan your rose bushes? Should you lock in
your interest rate today? And what the heck is a
‘soffit’, anyway? Call HomeNet now!

Cyberscape Online Systems! (508)368-8456“

Lancaster, Massachusetts since 12/92. Sysop:
David White. Using TBBS 2.2M with 3 lines on
MS-DOS 80486 with 1500 MB storage. Hayes at
28.8k bps. No fee. Cyberscape Online Systems
specializes in the design, development and
support of high quality TBBS-Based Online
Systems. We also stock a large collection of high
quality shareware with 25 or more new files per
day. Call today for Free D/L’s.

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World’s most extensive technical shareware col¬
lections, updated bi-monthly, with support for
ALL BBSes and the most extensive database
directories in the business. CD-ROM and disk¬
ette collections for BBSes specializing in Net¬
ware, AutoCAD, ASM, C/C++, TPascal, Visual
Basic, VBDOS/QB/PDS, Paradox, Clipper,
FoxPro, Spreadsheets, OS/2, ObjectVision, MS-
Access, Small Business, Science/Engineering,
TrueType, or many others. 156,000 record data¬
base and door of all PC products and companies.
30 day money-back guarantee since 1984. From
$25. Free brochure.

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4505 Buckhurst Ct.

OIney, MD 20832

Voice:301-924-3594 Fax:301-963-2708
EMail:eengelmann@worIdbank.org

Creative Media Productions (508)478-9200“

Massachusetts since 09/93. Sysop: Jay Appell.
Using PCBoard 15 with 2 lines on MS-DOS
80386 with 1800 MB storage. Motorola Codex
Vfast at 24Kbp bps. $10.00 Quarterly fee.
Passwd authorization avail. 24hrs a day! File
forums: AMATEUR RADIO, business, finance,
data comm, education, PUBLIC SAFETY (Police
& Fire), GAMES, geneology, GRAPHICS, health
& medical, hobbies, home & real estate, SCAN¬
NERS and SHORTWAVE. User Friendly!

ponyXpress BBS (508)587-7669“ Brockton,
Massachusetts since 07/93. Sysop: Karl Kunz.
Using PCBoard 15 with 2 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 500 MB storage. Zoom at 14400 bps.
$25 Annual fee. 6 CD-ROM jukebox: 2.6GB
msdos & windows shareware + over 2GB of adult
GIF’s. Internet & Usenet with Znews offline
reader. UUCP feeds available. Free one month
trail. For more info: info@ponyx.com. For
PCBoards on Internet List: pcb-list@ponyx.com

GRYPHON’S Lair BBS (508)686-5994“ Methuen,
Massachusetts since 03/93. Sysop: Mike Dube.
Using WildCat 3.90 with 2 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 5000 MB storage. Hayes at 28800
bps. No fee. Something for Everyone! LinkUSA
IOMAG,YankeeNet,Wildnet,Usenet/Internet, Dist
Site#1588 for Apogee, Parole & T&J Software,
Classifieds, Lotto, Raffles, 5 CD’s online, Games,
Adult, File D/L 1st Call, Add’l access @ $25/year.
& MUCH MORE!

THE ADULT HANGOUT BBS (508)746-6010“

Plymouth, Massachusetts since 04/92. Sysop:
Winger. Using MajorBBS 6.2 with 16 lines on
80586 with 7500 MB storage. US Robotics at
19200 bps. No fee. A BBS devoted to adults.
With over 45,000 adult files online. Matchmaking,
chat, adult games, national NetMail, adult flower-
shop, adult service’s directory, adult classified
ads, 8-24 CD-ROMs, Rip Graphics, all info confi¬
dential & Women get Free access.

ADULT-RANGER BBS (508)756-6133

Worcester, MA since 11/93. Sysop: Stephen
Hopkins. Using Wildcat 4 with 4 lines on MS-
DOS with 2000 MB storage. ZOOM at 14400 bps.
$28.00 6 month fee. The FASTEST growing Adult
Board in the Northeast. Adult LIVE Chat, 58
conferences including “Talk Dirty To Me”. On-
Board psychologist, computer store, tech special-
ists.Thousands of gifs from TAME to BIZARRE,
games. 5 sysops! FREE ten day trial!!!!!!

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Tiger Team Buddhist Information Network
(510)268-0102“ Berkeley, California since 06/92.
Sysop: Gary Ray, Jeff Macko. Using Wildcat
3.91 with 6 lines on MS-DOS 8088 with 2000 MB
storage. Zoom at 14400 bps. No fee. America’s
Buddhist Online Service. Buddhist conferences,
texts, translations, GIF artwork, programs and
national event listings. BodhiNet & UseNet
conferences, INTERNET e-mail. Connect with
BUDDHIST MASTERS, monks/nuns, scholars
and lay practitioners.

Substation BBS (516)364-4450“ Woodbury,
New York since 04/86. Sysop: Paul Blaccard.
Using PCBoard 15.0 with 4 lines on MS-DOS
80386 with 9000 MB storage. US Robotics at
16800 bps. No fee. Dependable quality BBS
system. Featuring loads of DOS shareware files
with one of the most exciting adult areas.
Mentioned in the book “More Joy of Cybersex” for
its innovative adult scans. Voice support
(516)921-8312

America’s Suggestion Box (ASB) (516)471-
8625“ Ronkonkoma, New York since 02/92.
Sysop: Joe Jerszynski. Using TBBS 2.2 with 16
lines on Pentium with 13000 MB storage. Prac¬
tical Peripheral at 14400 bps. $17 Quarterly fee.
100000+ files, ASP approved, Shareware Show¬
case, Boardwatch, USAToday, Internet E-mail,
Usenet! Would you like to see a computer
product or service improved? Call and see why
you and ASB can make a difference! Generous
access time & download privs.

Alternative Insights (516)676-0741“ Glen Head,
Long Island, New York since 03/94. Sysop: Celia
Varga. Using PCBoard 15.1 with 2 lines on MS-
DOS with 341 MB storage. Practical Peripheral at
14400 bps. $60 Annual fee. New Age & Science-
Ephemerides, atlas, weather, skywatch, online
magazines,birthinfo database, FidoNet, PODNet,
RelayNet- Files, games, 100+ conferences, chat
New Callers first month FREE access! Entertain¬
ment and enlightenment.. Check us out!

East Coast Connection (516)742-1923“

Mineola, New York since 10/93. Sysop: Joe
Guddat. Using MajorBBS 6.12 with 2 lines on
MS-DOS 80486 with 2100 MB storage. US
Robotics at 14400 bps. $25 Quarterly fee.
Internet, USEnet. Different forums (from politics
to adult erotica). Large file library with adult files
and movies. Large OS/2 and Windows applica¬
tion section. Epic Mega games release point. CD-
ROM too. Different memberships and low fees.
Vail Today.

Computer & modem access
to the world’s best library
of shareware games & music!

Every file is worth downloading. An
official distribution point for quality
games from Apogee, Id, Epic, Alive,
MVP, Moraffware, Soleau, Arcanum,
ImagiSoft, Gamers Edge and more.

| Great music flies, not just sound. ~|

Log on: 516-689-0285

FREE downloads when you log on!

Multi-line Oracomm® system

Boardwatch - August 1994 125

Hi-Teck’s Place (516)757-0210" Long Island,
New York since 07/91. Sysop: Hi-Teck Pete.
Using PCBoard 15.0 with 10 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 23000 MB storage. US Robotics at
19200 bps. $40 Annual fee. BBS for Graphics
Scans and Shareware. Over 60,000 Quality GIF
& Hi-Color Scans Online, also DOS, WINDOWS
& ADULT files. Register and Credit Card
Membership Online. One of the Largest and
Fastest growing BBS in the Northeast. Come and
Teck Us Out for FREE

sysop (516)757-6600" northport.ny LI since
06/01. Sysop: waiter partridge. Using MajorBBS
6.21 with 8 lines on MS-DOS with 2,000 MB
storage. US Robotics at 14400 bps. $10,25 900
servie fee. HOTTEST GAMES, TONS OF ADULT
DOWNLOADS, 24 HOUR WORLDLINK
ACCESS, FREE ACCESS TO ALL NEW
USERS!

Spectra Information Management (516)932-
6949" Long Island, New York since 01/93. Sysop:
T. Zorn & S. Brohman. Using PCBoard 15.1 with
3 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 7500 MB storage.
ZyXel at 16.8 bps. No fee. DOS, OS/2, Windows
shareware with 7 CD-ROMS. One line supports
ZOOM 24K. Small monthly fee allows access to
all areas, including adult, and Internet E-mail and
Usenet Groups. Voice mail support for
newcomers.

Wolverine (517)695-9952“ Freeland, Michigan
since 07/88. Sysop: Rick Rosinski. Using
PCBoard 15.1 with 7 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 14000 MB storage. US Robotics at 19200
bps. $35 Annual fee. Mid-Michigan’s Largest BBS
with over 100,000 files. Files for Windows,
Amiga, Mac, IBM, more. Official Support BBS for
SkyGlobe. Apogee, Eipc, MVP, Software
Creations, MoraffWare Distribution Site. FidoNet,
RIME, USPolNet. 13 CD-ROM’s. Subscribe
online.

Delight The Customer BBS (517)797-3740“

Saginaw, Michigan since 12/91. Sysop: Dennis A.
Hauser. Using TBBS 2.2M with 4 lines on MS-
DOS 80486 with 340 MB storage. Hayes at 9600
bps. $57 YR or FREE fee. For Customer Service,
Training, TQM, Help Desk, Telemarketing and
QA/QC professionals. Business, Professional
BBS List. Call & list your bus/prof oriented BBS
today. FREE memberships for file upload. <ASP
Approved BBS>.

THe GaRBaGe DuMP BBS (602)331-1112“

Phoenix, Arizona since 12/90. Sysop: Dean Kerl.
Using MajorBBS 6.21 with 100 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 10300 MB storage. Hayes at 2400
bps. No fee. Hugh BBS featuring chat, message
forums, MailLink, MajorNet, Internet email and
newsgroups, CD-ROM file library, games, online
trivia. Adults only, uncensored chat and message
areas. Our motto says it all: Caution. Adults at
Play. Voice 505-294-4980.

GAMES PLUS (608)822-2000“ Fennimore,
Wisconson since 09/93. Sysop: Tim Brown.
Using MajorBBS 6.21 B with 32 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 10000 MB storage. US Robotics at
14400 bps. No fee. The hottest new games, from
chariots to chessboards, dungeons to deep
space. Tradewars 2002. 9 CD-ROMs, trivia, inter¬
link chat, forums. Now offering RIP graphics.
Internet mail and network newsgroups coming
soon. We are free.

Amigatized BBS (609)443-8230“ East Windsor,
NJ since 06/92. Sysop: Cool. Using Cnet Pro 3.0
with 2 lines on AMIGA with 2000 MB storage. US
Robotics at 16800 bps. $25 Annual fee. 2 lines
on an Amiga 4000/030 with 1 gig and 2 cdroms
on-line. USR Dual Standard 168 and Supra
288.$15 a half a year/$25 for full year.Clink
Network and Tradernet. Thousands of recent MS-
DOS and Amiga PD/Shareware
files.Doors,chat,Conferences,Rip Graphics

The —DETOUR—> BBS (609)896-3691“

Lawrenceville, New Jersey since 11/92. Sysop:
Bill Roman. Using PCBoard 15.1/100 with 15
lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 22000 MB storage.
US Robotics at 38400 bps. $45.00 Annual fee.
New Jersey’s Largest PCBoard BBS. Over
220,000 FILES! 29 CD’s ON-LINE! 1800+ E-Mail
conferences, Continuous Satellite Feed of files
and E-Mail. 4 Gigs, of Adult Material, Monthly
Contests, FREE Trial Membership, rates as low
as $12. Give us a call TODAY!

LINWOOD TBBS (609)927-2059“ Linwood, New
Jersey since 08/88. Sysop: Dick Soucy. Using
TBBS 2.2 with 1 line on MS-DOS 80386 with 550
MB storage. Hayes at 28.8K bps. No fee. MS Dos
files, most current from the largest BBS’s in the
country. Files updated weekly with new, virus-
checked and verified files available on your first
call. No fees, no restrictions. On-line games, and
more.

P.C. MegaMall Systems (612)488-5112" Saint
Paul, Minnesota since 12/90. Sysop: Michael
Wielenberg. Using MajorBBS 6.12 with 6 lines on
MS-DOS 80486 with 900 MB storage. Digicom at
14400 bps. $1 Hourly fee. Many features include:
Ripscript, Chat, Online Games, Large file Library,
Internet, E-mail, Local Forums, Doors, and much
much more to see. Multiple membership pack¬
ages available. Call for a limited free trial offer!!

The Friendship Express (612)566-5726“

Minneapolis, Minnesota since 12/88. Sysop: Glen
Williamson. Using Major BBS 6.03 with 32 lines
on MS-DOS 80486 with 450 MB storage. US
Robotics at 14400 bps. $ 1/hr Hourly fee. Best
kept secret in North America! Part of Majornet,
with 1000’s of members in ALL 50 states and
Canada! If you’re interested in swinging, gay,
lesbian, bi, straight, leather, Xdressing,
B&D/S&M, etc, then this board is for YOU. FREE
swinger’s magazines!

ASA CompuHelp BBS (614)476-4058“

Columbus, Ohio since 05/92. Sysop: Jeff Binkley.
Using PCBoard 15 with 5 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 3600 MB storage. Hayes at 14400
bps. $30/60 Annual fee. Central Ohio’s fastest
growing BBS. FidoNet, StormNet, full UseNet
Feed, Internet E-Mail, CD-ROM drives and more.
Featuring full Usenet feeds for low low prices.
Known for our newsletter and great technical
support. Check-us-out.

Come play
with me!

I’ll be at
Alternative
Visions
BBS

An adult contact board

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► Online MatchMaker

► XXX Color Graphics

► Personal Classifieds

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Singles • Swingers • Gay • TVs

8 Nodes - 2400/9600/14400 Bps
Modem: (718) 746-6800

The 3rd Eye Electronic Erotic Magazine
(615)227-6155“ Nashville, Tennessee since
05/86. Sysop: Guru Chev. Using TBBS 2.2 with
12 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 2000 MB
storage. Hayes at 28800 bps. $39 Annual fee.
Serving open-minded free-thinking couples with
an interest in the responsible swinging lifestyle.
Personal Ads (all lifestyles). Digitized photos of
members. Multi-user chat and multi-system chat
linkups. Organized Socials. Lifestyle support.
Much More.

Rose & Crown BBS (615)892-0097 Chat¬
tanooga, Tennesse since 06/85. Sysop: David
Ellison. Using PCBoard 15 with 6 lines on MS-
DOS 80486 with 70000 MB storage. US Robotics
at 14400 bps. $33.00 Annual fee. 100 Disk
CDROM Changer on line, 70 GIGABYTES, no
limits no ratios, my callers are never asked to
upload! 30 minutes per day free, DOWNLOAD
WITH FIRST CALL, RIME Echomail. NO byte
limits, NO file limits. This may be the perfect BBS
for you.

Mount Kailas BBS (617)252-9988“ Cambridge,
MA since 03/94. Sysop: Lobsang Tashi. Using
MajorBBS 6.21 with 5 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 540 MB storage. Intel at 14400 bps. $40
Annual fee. Spiritually oriented BBS featuring a
calendar of teachings and events from the
Buddhist centers in the New England Area. Tele¬
conference, Forums, File Library and more.
Come, find your VIRTUAL-SELF on Mount Kailas
BBS!

City Solutions Institute’s BBS (617)547-1250“

Cambridge, Massachusetts since 01/89. Sysop:
Michael Rollins. Using PCBoard 15.1 with 4 lines
on MS-DOS 80486 with 8000 MB storage. Hayes
at 28800 bps. $25 Annual fee. Help politicians &
activists tackle urban problems. Teaching simula¬
tions. Access Internet. Disease Issues-
AIDS/TUBERCULOSIS. Access ECON/POL
2000 forecasts. City quality lists. Research data.
Urban Public/Home schooling issues & assis¬
tance.

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Summit Software Services

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126 Boardwatch - August 1994

The White Zone BBS (617)969-3138" Newton
Highlands, Massachusettes since 10/90. Sysop:
David Saganey. Using TBBS 2.2 with 8 lines on
MS-DOS 80486 with 4400 MB storage. US
Robotics at 16800 bps. $25 Quarterly fee. 2.5+
GB of IBM MS-DOS Shareware, Adult Graphics,
Midi & Soundcard Files, Windows, WazWare &
More. Online Games, Classified Ads, BBS List¬
ings, QWK Offline Mail Reader Support, News-
bytes Weekly & PC Catalog Online. ASP
Approved BBS.

THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP BBS
(619)721-1828“ Oceanside, California since
06/92. Sysop: Marie-Jos, CLERC. Using
MajorBBS 6.2 with 1 line on MS-DOS 80486 with
525 MB storage. Practical Peripheral at 14400
bps. No fee. Dedicated to the promulgation of
Rosicrucian Christianity. Multilingual text file
library of the written legacy of Max Heindel,
founder of The Rosicrucian Fellowship, an Inter¬
national Association of Christian Mystics. RIP
Graphics support. FREE.

Crystal Quill (703)241-7100“ Arlington, Virginia
since 04/93. Sysop: Crystal. Using MajorBBS

6.21 with 66 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 4,000
MB storage. US Robotics at 14400 bps. $.60
Hourly fee. DC’s Premier BBS! 66 line chat-
based system with MailLink, Interlink, MajorNet
and Internet. 4 Gigs of files on CD ROM, Adult &
Teen areas, multiplayer games, Matchmaking
facilities, MC, VISA, 900; First 2 hours FREE I!

Back of the Rack (703)264-0255“ Reston, VA
since 05/94. Sysop: Dave Clark. Using TBBS 2.2
with 2 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 1000 MB
storage. PPI at 28800 bps. No fee. We are new
and expanding to 16 lines soon. We offer
onliners, live chat and support for DOS, OS/2 and
Linux. Join us as we add more features each
month and current active users will get discounts
when the system initiates Internet and other
options.

PC Jewels (704)455-3990“ Charlotte, North
Carolina since 02/94. Sysop: Matt Zaremski.
Using MajorBBS 6.21 with 2 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 2000 MB storage. US Robotics at
14400 bps. No fee. PC Jewels is an online
service dedicated to selling fine jewelry at the
lowest prices. We are direct importers with world¬
wide suppliers. No fees. 800# access for qualified
customers. Download DOS or Windows
RIP/lmage enabled terminal program.

The Christian Star (704)598-9611“ Charlotte,
North Carolina since 01/85. Sysop: Jace Carlson.
Using TBBS 2.2 with 6 lines on MS-DOS with
1200 MB storage. Hayes at 28800 bps. $50.00
Annual fee. Christian networking Galore! Online
database, files, and message conferences
devoted to Christian Apologetics, Cult Information
& Research, Bible Studies, and much, much,
more! Teen Help & Christian Singles sections,
UltraChat, and Multi-Player Games.

POPULUS II (706)569-0773“ Columbus, Georgia
since 05/93. Sysop: David McAfee. Using
MajorBBS 6.12 with 2 lines on MS-DOS 80386
with 600 MB storage. TWINCOM at 38400 bps.
No fee. Windows, Programmer’s Support, C++,
Object-oriented Programming, Flash games, On-
Line Chat, CD-ROM’s, Programming Available.
FIDO, Local messaging, and pay service
INTERNET.

The Party Line BBS (707)588-8055“ Rohnert
Park, California since 12/85. Sysop: Jami Chism.
Using MajorBBS 6.2 with 12 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 4800 MB storage. Practical Peripheral
at 14400 bps. $10 Monthly fee. internet Email,
Usenet newsgroups, RIP Graphics, Nationwide
ChatLink, PC Catalog, Newsbytes, Multi-Player
Tradewars 2002, 6 Recent CD-ROMs, Free Trial.
For information via Internet email: jami@party-
line.com. MajorNet email: sysop@xcl

The Outer Limits BBS (708)289-0034“ Chicago,
Illinois since 05/92. Sysop: Mistress Crystal.
Using Syncronet 1 with 12 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 3000 MB storage. Various at 14400
bps. $20 Quarterly fee. The Midwest’s Best D/s,
B/D & Fetish On-line Play Party! “Fantasy
handles’’, chat, games, conferences, contests,
Adultnet, and 3GB of files make us the board to
explore your fantasies and play! Women free,
plus no-harassment policy. Visa/MC. 21+ only.

Caer Tuatha (708)393-7750“ Warrenville, Illinois
since 12/93. Sysop: Gwydion. Using MajorBBS

6.21 with 4 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 120 MB
storage. Cardinal at 2400 bps. $30.00 Annual
fee. Exploring the unknown; Strange and unex¬
plained phenomena, the mystical and the myth¬
ical. As your gateway to the unknown, Caer
Tuatha invites you to take a peek into that fasci¬
nating world that lies just beyond the fringes of
the imagination. Free Trial.

MidWest BBS (708)513-1034“ St. Charles, Illi¬
nois since 02/84. Sysop: Steve Mills. Using
PCBoard 15.1 with 15 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 7500 MB storage. Hayes at 28800 bps. $45
Annual fee. Call us LAST! We are confident you’ll
find us to be one of the best, friendliest, most
enjoyable Bulletin Board Systems that you have
EVER called. Call us for your free trial and get
our BBS guide in the mail after you logon. You
WONT be dissapointed.

ABSOLUTE PLEASURE (708)677-3369“

Chicago, Illinois since 10/93. Sysop: Mr.
Absolute. Using MajorBBS 6.2 with 12 lines on
MS-DOS 80486 with 3000 MB storage. Supra at
14400 bps. $24.00 Half Year fee. Chicago’s
hottest & friendliest up & coming board. Full time
Sysop & 12 seXXion SysOps (8 of them female).
CYBEROTIC, the only true on-line mall. New
original gif daily. Regularly scheduled chats,
internet coming. Mention this ad for a 10 day test
drive

PitStar BBS (708)687-4413“ Oak Forest, Illinois
since 01/92. Sysop: Pady Smith. Using PCBoard
15.1 with 4 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 2000
MB storage. Intel at 14400 bps. $25-90 Annual
fee. Multi-purpose BBS with a business and
finance flavor. Stock, Commodities quotes,
Usenet, Internet Email, GIFs of missing children,
current weather reports, 100+ file directories.

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Voice: (617) 332-1452

COM ONE (708)717-9370“ Naperville, lllnois
since 05/92. Sysop: Craig Wells. Using MajorBBS

6.21 with 8 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 6000
MB storage. Incomm at 2400 bps. $9 Variable
fee. Over 60,000 of the most current files with
new files daily. 9 cds online, Over 200 MajorNet
& Usenet Newsgroups. Internet email w/all
subscriptions. Online mags & news. Adult forums,
files. Chat Nights & Theme Nights. Phone
Support line. Free Demo Time.

Chicago Syslink (708)795-4442“ Berwyn, Illinois
since 06/81. Sysop: George Matyaszek. Using
TBBS 2.2 with 16 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with
1000 MB storage. Hayes at 14400 bps. $30
Annual fee. Rated G, so the entire family can call.
New CD-ROM online every weekend. 100+
online games, MicroMatch/Find-A-Friend,
Internet/Fidonet, USAToday, Worldwide HUB for
Virtual Sysop, OutDial Service to Other BBS’s
and something for All.

AlphaOne Online (708)827-3619“ Park Ridge,
Illinois since 03/90. Sysop: Toby. Using TBBS 2.2
with 18 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 8500 MB
storage. Hayes at 28800 bps. $36 Annual fee.
You’ve seen the rest-now try the BEST! 100,000+
Files. Online stores. CHAT, matchmakers, adult
games 150+ conferences. Fidonet, Adult Link,
GayCom. Get the most for your online $! CALL &
mention this ad for FREE TRIAL. For more info
voice-708-827-3615

MORTGAGE MARKET ON-LINE (708)834-
1450“ Villa Park, Illinois since 01/85. Sysop: Dan
Eaton. Using TBBS 2.2 with 12 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 1000 MB storage. US Robotics at
14400 bps. No fee. THE resource of home
finance information, national real estate informa¬
tion, and mortgage rates. FULL COLOR on-line
pictures of homes for sale! FREE information at
your fingertips 24 hours per day, 16 lines, HST
Dual Standards. National Company.

THE WILD ONION! (708)993-0461“ Chicago
Metro-area since 05/93. Sysop:
ALT@ONION.COM. Using MajorBBS 6.21 with
50 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 12500 MB
storage. US Robotics at 14400 bps. $10 variable
fee. Chicago area’s premier all adult social BBS.
Chat, local Forums and 20+ games. 75,000+ files
and GIFs online. Large Adult Forums area.
INTERNET NEWS and mail. MAJORNET and
WORLDLINK. PC Pursuit thru ILCHI.

FREE INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNT! ***

Lykd

Hyper!

Ihe Hypertext Reader for TBBS/TDBS

• RIP & ANSI terminals • HTML compatible files

Links can call TBBS functions. Build
your own or use pre-existing databases.
Customization & frequent features
upgrades. Nagware trial version.

$50 from sales@hfsinc.com
sysop at 1:362/1211
modem 615/267-1562
voice/fax 615/ 886-1717
HTS • box 456 Signal Mtn TN 37377

Boardwatch - August 1994 127

Data Warp Premium Computer Systems
(713)355-6107" Houston, Texas since 07/88.
Sysop: Mike Meyer. Using PCBoard 15.1 with 5
lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 2500 MB storage.
US Robotics at 38400 bps. $20 Quarterly fee.
One of Houston’s largest general interest BBS
systems. Thousands of files, dozens more posted
daily. Hundreds of message conferences,
including Usenet newsgroups, Internet email
@dwarp.com, ILink and Annex networks. Adult
areas available. Free or fee.

X-Citing Systems Online (713)943-4000"

Houston, Texas since 06/01. Sysop: Travis R..
Using MajorBBS 6.21-d with 31 lines on MS-DOS
with 6000 MB storage. US Robotics at 14400
bps. $$48 Annual fee. Serving the back alleys of
the Information Super Highway. Internet,
Majornet. All adult, must be 21 yrs or older. Come
see the girls of X-Citing Tans, the nations hottest
adult tanning salons. Chat live with these girls
online and see their GIF’s & AVI’s

Check Six BBS (714)362-8299" Laguna Niguel,
California since 06/93. Sysop: Patrick Gost.
Using PCBoard 15.1 with 5 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 1.2 MB storage. Hayes at 28800 bps.
$5 Monthly fee. Latest flight simulation updates,
utils, and msgs. Internet Email, USENET (air
combat, fit. sim, etc.). Official customer support
forums for Keyboard Commander Corp
(kcc@checksix.com) and ThrustMaster (thrust-
master @checksix.com). SimNet member BBS.

The Viewlink BBS (714)650-4612" Costa Mesa,
California since 10/92. Sysop: Terry Andrews.
Using Wildcat 3.9 with 4 lines on MS-DOS 80386
with 1400 MB storage. US Robotics at 14400
bps. $10 36 days fee. Latest shareware, hottest
adult GIFs and FIFs, Temp Jobs, latest hot
shareware GAMES. 28 cents per hour. Upload
GIFs for more time. Chat for all. 10 Conferences
and 109 File Areas. Login 4 more info. You must
be 18 or older, please.

Interludes BBS (714)828-7093" Cypress, Cali¬
fornia since 01/89. Sysop: Angela Duarte. Using
MajorBBS 6.21 with 13 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 3000 MB storage. Supra at 14400 bps. $4.95
Monthly fee. Local numbers available. Multiplayer
games, Internet Mail, Usenet, Majornet mail,
nationwide chat, matchmaker, and more! Home
of Humanware Systems (TPD of MajorBBS utili¬
ties). Low rates. Fast and friendly system with
great users!

MONEY OPPORTUNITIES BBS (714)952-9577"

Buena Park, CA since 06/94. Sysop: Curt Wolff.
Using Hermes II 1.1 with 3 lines on MACINTOSH
with 500 MB storage. US Robotics at 14400 bps.
No fee. 24 Hours. All computer users welcome.
Downloads available on first call. Great money
making opportunities. Learn secrets that will help
you make money like magic. Download free
Amazing Reports! Excellent offer. Call Now!
Login as “MAGIC”,P/W:PARTIES

Real Estate Online (714)969-9624" Huntington
Beach, California since 08/93. Sysop: Doug
Campbell. Using MajorBBS 6.21 with 14 lines on
MS-DOS 80486 with 500 MB storage. US
Robotics at 14400 bps. No fee. Real Estate Info,
Chat, 25 Games, 200 MajorNet Forums, MailLink,
Files, RIP & ANSI modes.

THE PROMISED LAND (715)387-1339" Marsh¬
field, Wisconson since 01/90. Sysop: Tim Brown.
Using Custom 1 with 32 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 20000 MB storage. US Robotics at 14400
bps. $.30 hourly fee. Support BBS for National
Shareware Library national archive of shareware,
freeware, public domain software. Download or
freq ARS Free access program. RIP, live national
teleconferences, 100+ forums, Free demopak
upon verification. Fido: 1:238/500.

Bits ‘N Bytes BBS (717)757-4141" York, Penn¬
sylvania since 09/89. Sysop: Bryan S. Leaman.
Using PCBoard 15.1 with 3 lines on MS-DOS
80386 with 2000 MB storage. US Robotics at
14400 bps. $30 Annual fee. Large MS-DOS file
library including SIMTEL-20 Internet FTP archive,
Internet E-Mail, USENET newsgroups, RIME mail
network, up-to-date NOAA weather forecasts, a
wide variety of online GAMES, multinode CHAT.
New users receive instant access!

PARADISE NETWORK BBS (718)241-9007"

Brooklyn, New York since 06/89. Sysop: Luc’e.
Using Custom 1.0 with 17 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 1345 MB storage. Supra at 2400 bps.
$30 Annual fee. New York's Largest Adult BBS.
Hundreds of singles & couples looking to chat,
exchange mail, and meet! X-rated GIFS and
animations. High female to male ratio. Free two
week trial. 9600 v.32 (718) 241-9049. All adult,
must be 21. Credit cards accepted.

Quantum 2000 BBS (718)740-8411" Queens,
New York since 05/94. Sysop: Michael Lee.
Using WildCat 3.91 M with 2 lines on MS-DOS
with 1200 MB storage. Practical Peripheral at
14400 bps. No fee. Specializing in Door games
(over 30 online), CD-ROMs, various conferences
and Adult areas! Many packages available from
6 mths to 1 year. Fidonet and Internet are
coming soon! We now accept credit cards so you
get instant access! Friendly Sysop!

THE ICEBOX BBS (718)793-8548" Flusing, New
York since 04/88. Sysop: Darren Klein. Using
PCBoard 15.1 with 5 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 3400 MB storage. Microcom at 28800 bps.
$25 Annual fee. 700+ email conferences.
12,000+ files online. Many online games. Chat
live with other users. QWK/REP mail door for
reading your mail offline. New conferences and
files added daily. VISA/MC accepted.

The Fanatics Bulletin Board System (718)967-
6827" Staten Island, New York since 11/90.
Sysop: David Dempsey. Using PCBoard v15.1
with 5 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 10000 MB
storage. Microcom at 28.8 bps. No fee. Internet,
Direct Windows Support, Rimenet, RipScript
Supported, 24 Hour Voice & Fax Lines, Novell
Technical Support, Windows and OS/2 Patches,
RoseMail & Qmail Offline Mail Readers
Supported, Strategy & RPG Gamers Welcomed,
Online RPG Games & Much More!

Online Connections (800)LEAVE-AD" oldbridge
New jersey since 06/94. Sysop: KEITH
ANDREWS. Using MajorBBS 6.12 with 2 lines on
MS-DOS with 1000 MB storage. ZOOM at 14400
bps. $1.99 /MESSAGE fee. Single?. Looking for
a friend, companion? Look no more. Search this
database free, view photographs and leave
messages. No charge to receive messages. No
charge to add your optional photo. No names,
phone numbers or addresses required in your ad!

Nuttin’ Fancy BBS (804)239-5434" Lynchburg,
Virginia since 08/93. Sysop: Jeff Washburn.
Using PCBoard 15.1 with 3 lines on MS-DOS
80386 with 5000 MB storage. Hayes at 28.8 bps.
$35.00 Annual fee. Over 5 Gigabytes of Online
Files. All phone lines roll over. Fidonet and
Intelec Message Network Member. Official
Apogee Software Distribution Point. ASP
Approved Member BBS. 1 Free week of BBS
usage when New. Mention this ad to get $5 off a
subscription

CompuVision On-Line Entertainment System
(804)548-1988" Virginia Beach, Virginia since
05/93. Sysop: Russ Salter. Using Excalibur .65
with 8 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 2000 MB
storage. ZyXel at 16800 bps. $10.00 Monthly fee.
CompuVision is the premiere Windows based
system in the country. Use our Free windows
terminal to view full color graphics, GIFs while
online. Mouse support and sound, familiar
windows interface. Say goodbye to ANSI and
RIP.

The Granola Board (805)735-3315" Lompoc,
California since 01/90. Sysop: Deborah Taylor.
Using MajorBBS 6.21 d with 24 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 1200 MB storage. Best Data at 2400
bps. $0.60 Hourly fee. Home to diversity and
California’s nuts and flakes! IBM files, games,
entertainment, chat, forums/files for the disabled,
Majornet access and more! High speed ZyXEL
16.8kbps available. Come visit our friendly
system and see what makes us special!

The Aloha Network (808)621-8845" Oahu,
Hawaii since 07/93. Sysop: Johnny Brown. Using
MajorBBS 6.20 with 8 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 860 MB storage. US Robotics at 14400 bps.
$.50 Hourly fee. Free trial period for new users,
discounts available. Social BBSing like you
always knew it would be in Paradise! Special
support for disABLED and military users. Chat,
active message areas, MajorNet and Internet
mail. 7 CD-ROMS online. RIP graphics

The Serial Port (810)286-0145" Clinton Town¬
ship, Michigan since 03/82. Sysop: Stu Jackson.
Using TBBS 2.2 with 16 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 10100 MB storage. ZyXEL at 16800 bps.
$10 Monthly fee. C'mon by for a fun time. Over
10 Gig of pd and ADULT files. New UltraChat for
live PartyLine Chat between users. Ladies
receive n/c access to many of the systems
options. We offer instant access with Visa, MC,
Discover and voice support lines.

ONE EYED JACK’S (810)399-2845" DETROIT
since 09/93. Sysop: JACK. Using TBBS 2.2 with
2 lines on MS-DOS with 3500 MB storage. Hayes
at 14400 bps. $45> PER FILE fee. Huge selection
of adult gifs! 3 CD-ROMs online. NO time
charges, only 45> per file downloaded. Set up for
the first time user in mind! Throbnet, Fidonet

A to Z Classifieds (813)726-8088" Clearwater,
Florida since 07/93. Sysop: Ed Marquardt. Using
TBBS 2.2M with 2 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with
210 MB storage. Hayes at 14400 bps. No fee.
Classified Ads and information. Sell your car,
your boat, your house, or any other item. Adver¬
tise your business. Look for employment opportu¬
nities, and much more.

CyberSpace DataBase (813)796-5627" Clear¬
water, Florida since 09/82. Sysop: Steve
Sanders. Using PCBoard 15.1 with 3 lines on
MS-DOS 80486 with 10000 MB storage. US
Robotics at 28800 bps. $50.00 Annual fee.
Everything for Windows, Sound Cards, VGA
games, DTP, HAM Radio, AMSAT, Adult GIFs,
Utilities, Applications, Spreadsheets, more. 12
CD-ROMs and BIG hard drives = 80,000+ files!
Hi-resolution GOES weather satellite photos
daily. V.Fast Class modems IN

The Emporium BBS! (817)543-4250" Arlington,
Texas since 10/88. Sysop: Henry Buchanan.
Using Remote Access 2 with 20 lines on MS-
DOS 80486 with 6000 MB storage. US Robotics
at 19200 bps. $75 Annual fee. One of the largest
collections of adult files! Over 17,000 adult files
online. Adult games online, with online chat and
messages! ADULTS only! Must be 21 years of
age or older! Immediate adult access w/valid
credit card - VISA, Mastercard, Discover, AMEX

128 Boardwatch - August 1994

Panasia BBS (818)569-3740“ Glendale, Cali¬
fornia since 05/89. Sysop: William Padilla. Using
PCBoard 15.1 with 2 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 120 MB storage. US Robotics at 21600 bps.
No fee. We offer Internet e-mail access and carry
ALL conferences for the following echomail
networks: Intelec, ThrobNet, PlanoNet, BasNet,
JobNet, and MegNet. QWK/REP packet
processing available via Qmail. Access is FREE.
New users welcome. Friendly Sysop.

The Wine Connection BBS (818)718-5994“

Winnetka, California since 11/93. Sysop: Paul
Sennett. Using TBBS 2.2 with 5 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 250 MB storage. ZOOM at 14400
bps. No fee. Your best connection for Fine Wine!
Communicate with other Wine Enthusiasts about
Fine Wines you want to buy or sell and also
about many other Wine Topics. Glossary of Wine
Terms, Grape Varieties, California’s Premium
Wineries, and much more.

Global Exchange (901)873-2837“ Millington, Tn
since 03/87. Sysop: Carl Slawinski. Using
PCBoard 15.1 with 5 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 6000 MB storage. US Robotics at 14400
bps. $25.00 Annual fee. EVERY Fidonet and
RIME Conference Always Online. Planet Connect
Satellite System - INTERNET UseNet Groups -
Memphis Area Technical Support Hub Online
Games - Multinode Chat - “The World at Your
Fingertips!” Instant Access with VISA/MC
AMEX/DISCOVER

DRAGON KEEP INTERNATIONAL (904)375-
3500“ Gainesville, Florida since 01/87. Sysop:
Dragon. Using MajorBBS 6.2 with 32 lines on
MS-DOS 80486 with 5000 MB storage. US
Robotics at 14400 bps. $.25 Hourly fee. Exciting
Realtime Multi-Player Games, 24 Hr LIVE Chat
featuring Global Chatlink every night 10PM-1AM
(EST). Over 50,000 files online w/ 6 CD-ROM’s,
MajorNet, NetAccess, and Internet. Instant
access w/ VISA MC AMER call (904)375-6431 for
14.4 Access!

Shoreline BBS (904)478-6596“ Pensacola,FLA
since 03/94. Sysop: Kerry James. Using Wildcat
3.91 with 1 line on MS-DOS with 1200 MB
storage. BocaModem at 14400 bps. $$10 Half
Year fee. 2 CD-Rom’s online! Free downloading
on 1st call! A must for GulfCoast BBSers!

Alaska Information Cache (907)373-3205“

Wasilla, Alaska since 01/94. Sysop: Bob South-
wick. Using MajorBBS 6.21c with 2 lines on MS-
DOS 80386 with 345 MB storage. US Robotics at
14400 bps. No fee. Alaska Information Cache
provides travel info about the state of Alaska
1000+ travel services listed, online shopping for
publications and videos about Alaska Fishing
info, Forums on Alaskan topics, MajorNet,
NetAccess, WorldLink

Isle-Net (908)495-6996“ North Middletown, New
Jersey since 10/84. Sysop: Dan. Using TBBS 2.2
with 12 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 244 MB
storage. US Robotics at 14400 bps. $45 Annual
fee. Internet mail, Usenet newsgroups, erotic
fantasies written by members. Free chat on your
first call! Challenging games, lots of files to down¬
load. Stop by and have your Tarot cards read
online. We do it better because we've done it
since 1984!

The Never Enough BBS (908)862-0631“ Linden,
New Jersey since 02/94. Sysop: Mike
Demkowicz. Using PCBoard 15.1 with 1 line on
MS-DOS 80386 with 700 MB storage. Hayes at
28800 bps. No fee. Full RIPscrip support - We
have many files, games, CD-ROM, MegNET
echo-mail, NJ Weather. An ADULT conference
with adult games & GIF's (support members
only). There are UL/DL ratios for regular
members. WARNING!! I use Caller ID so NO
duplicate accounts.

Cheers Online! (Cheersoft) (908)972-2387“

Central New Jersey since 09/90. Sysop: Ian
Rintel. Using MajorBBS 6.2x with 32 lines on MS-
DOS 80486 with 500 MB storage. UDS at 2400
bps. $5 Monthly fee. FREE TRIAL! Lost
Caverns,World Conquest,Word Quest,Galactic
Empire, Infinity Complex, Forbidden

Lands, Farwest

Trivia,Crosswords,MegaSlots.Wilderlands,Erotica
,Pro Chess,Gwars. Local Access Throughout
New Jersey! MajorNet, 24 Hour Links!

THE IRISH MALL ONLINE (909)307-1313“

Redlands, California, since 06/01. Sysop: Sean
Kenny. Using MajorBBS 6.21 with 4 lines on MS-
DOS with 2 gig MB storage. US Robotics at
14400 bps. $2.50 Hourly fee. This is a unique
new service focussing on the needs of anyone
with Irish interests. FREE online shopping for
books, music, crystal, etc. Downloadable photos,
news, Irish Internet info. Forums. Games.
Coming soon: genealogy sen/ice!

Bits and Bytes BBS (909)356-4636“ Fontana,
California since 09/91. Sysop: Barly Redsar.
Using PCBoard V15.1 with 7 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 13000 MB storage. US Robotics at
21600 bps. $38 Annual fee. BEST BBS around!
You do not believe us? Well call and find out for
yourself! How can you go wrong? Over 75000
files online (every week we have 700 new files),
60 Door games, 700 conferences (Internet,
RIME, U’NI, Intelec, Throbnet, and more). Adult
Only.

Legend Graphics OnLine (909)689-9229“

Corona Hills, California since 11/91. Sysop: Joey
Marquez. Using PCBoard 15 with 12 lines on
LAN Network 80486s with 6000 MB storage. US
Robotics at 14400 bps. $5 Monthly fee. Nation’s
One Stop Graphics BBS! You will be impressed!
Huge Adults Only File Areas! Simply the BEST in
Southern California! SuperVGA Photo Images,
Video in Motion MoviePICs! Visa MC AmExp
Optima accepted.

The Erotic Shopping Network (913)780-0005“

Olathe, Kansas since 04/93. Sysop: Dave
McVey. Using MajorBBS 6.1 with 3 lines on MS-
DOS 80386 with 485 MB storage. Zoom at 9600
bps. No fee. The first BBS of its kind in the U.S.
On-line Adult shopping system featuring XXX
videos, exciting lingerie, massage oils and
lotions, condoms, marital aids and adult novel¬
ties. Catalogs available in hardcopy. MC, VISA
welcome. Must be 18 or over.

E2B2-The Total Environmental Source(TM)
(913)897-1040“ Overland Park, Kansas since
04/94. Sysop: Bill Taggart. Using TBBS 2.2 with 2
lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 200 MB storage.
GVC at 14400 bps. No fee. An environmental
BBS geared toward providing up to date informa¬
tion for both the public, as well as the technically
oriented environmentalist. We tout a growing
library of technical information and current envi¬
ronmental legislation pending in Congress.

The Overlords Castle (914)921-3476“ Rye, NY
since 06/93. Sysop: Jay Remsen. Using Wildcat
3.90 with 1 line on MS-DOS 80486 with 500 MB
storage. US Robotics at 14400 bps. No fee. We
have 40 doors online, some of which have never
been seen before. We are running FIDONET and
carry between 100 and 150 conferences online,
20 file areas and some very friendly users. We
consider ourselves the local Westchester County
meeting place.:)

Hackney’s Hideaway BBS (916)755-3964“ Yuba
City, California since 06/87. Sysop: Rich
Hackney. Using PCBoard 15.1 with 1 line on MS-
DOS 80486 with 800 MB storage. US Robotics at
14400 bps. No fee. Over 800 megs of online files
plus 350 echomail conferences from the Intelec,
Smartnet, PEN, llink networks. A very little used
BBS over USR DS service, no validation, no
waiting - get 60 minutes free access per day.
How can you beat that?

For Adults Only BBS (916)962-3973“ Sacra¬
mento, California since 01/88. Sysop: Dale
DeBord. Using Oracomm-PLUS 7.1 with 17 lines
on MS-DOS 80486 with 2000 MB storage. Prac¬
tical Peripheral at 14400 bps. $14 Quarterly fee.
Sacramento’s largest and friendliest Adult CHAT,
FILES System. Adult Message Bases, CHAT,
GIF, GL, DL, FLI, Text and Game FILES. FREE
Member GIFs. DISCOUNT Member Plans for
Students and Military. FREE 3-HOUR TRIAL
PERIOD. DOWNLOAD ON FIRST LOGON!

Black Gold BBS (918)272-7779“ Tulsa, Okla¬
homa since 06/81. Sysop: Michael Cline. Using
PCBoard 15.1 with 26 lines on MS-DOS with
38000 MB storage. US Robotics at 28800 bps.
$30 Annual fee. Full PageSat and Planet
Connect. 56k connect to Internet, 100 Doors, Full
time SYSOP’s and much much more. Many free
areas and files with 45 minutes free access per
day. 350 file areas, 3+ million messages less
than 7 days old. Never Porno/Just hard work

ACCESS AMERICA (918)747-2542“ Tulsa, Okla¬
homa since 03/88. Sysop: Vance Martin. Using
TBBS 2.2 with 5 lines on MS-DOS with 6,500 MB
storage. Hayes at 14400 bps. $25 /100 hours fee.
REAL ESTATE MARKET with photos, Internet
mail & newsgroups, JOBMARKET, Ultra Chat,
.QWK mail system, PhotoClassified ads, FidoNet,
Matchmaker & Personal Ads, multi-player ANSI &
RIP games, 40,000+ files, 8 CD-ROM’s, Okla¬
homa & Branson travel info & MORE!

Entertainment Club BBS (919)544-7811“

Research Triangle Park, North Car. since 04/94.
Sysop: Brian Womack. Using MagNum OS/2
7.00C5 with 4 lines on Pentium/60 OS/2 with
8GB MB storage. Zyxel at 19200 bps. $8++
Annual fee. 1000++ File areas (40,000++ files w/

6 SW CDROMs update quarterly), 500++
Message sections — will add more at user’s
request. 40++ REGISTERED Multi-User Games
(Inter-BBS/Real-Time), Color Scanner serv.,
MatchMaking services (doors, parties) BARGAIN!

Micro Message Service (MMS) (919)779-6674“

Raleigh, North Carolina since 10/82. Sysop:
Michael M. Stroud. Using TBBS 2.2 with 10 lines
on MS-DOS 80486 with 12000 MB storage. US
Robotics at 19200 bps. $45 Annual fee. NC’s # 1
online info service support for PC, Mac, Amiga
and Atari ST. Hundreds of new files added
weekly. Expert leaders for each SIG. Authorized
eSoft dealer, system design and TDBS program¬
ming. Give your online system a leading edge,
call us first.

Board watch - August 1994

129

BOARDWATCH magazine

NATIONAL LIST OF ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARDS AND ONLINE INFORMATION SERVICES - August 1994

SERVICE

PHONE

DESCRIPTION

SPONSOR/SYSOP

LOCATION

ABC On-Line

ADA 9X Project Bulletin Board
ADA Information Clearinghouse
AMUG Preferred BBS
ANARC BBS
APCUG - GlobalNet
AST Technical Services BBS
AT&T Support BBS
ATI Support BBS
Advanced Data Services Inc.
Alamo PC Organization
Albuquerque ROS
America’s Suggestion Box
American Cybernetics BBS
Applied Modeling Research RBBS
Aquila BBS

Argus Computerized Exchange
Atomic Cafe BBS
Atomic Cafe BBS
Atri BBS

Attention to Details

Audiophile Network

Automobile Consumer Services

AviTechnic 1:261/662

BBS America

BCS BBS

BCS IBM BBS

BCS Info Center BBS

BCS Mac BBS

BMUG BBS

Beach Board BBS 1:371/1
Beyond Eternity
Beyond the Realm
Boardwatch Magazine Online Info
Book BBS

Book Stacks Unlimited
Borland Download BBS
Botnay Bay EIS
Boundary Waters BBS
Bruce’s Bar & Grill
Bryant Software
C.A.R.L Library Service
CAD/Engineering Service
CBBS/Chicago
CD Connection
Canada Remote Systems
Capital PC User’s Group BBS
Castle Tabby 107/412

(718)446-2157 21 Gigs online, TBBS, Internet, Fidonet, Entertainment, News

(800)232-9925 ADA Programming Language Revisions and News
(703)614-0215 Information on ADA Programming Language/Military Specs
(602)553-0721 Support for Mac users, 15,000 files, Conferences
(913)345-1978 World Radio/TV Handbook - Short Wave Freq Lists/Scheds.
(408)439-9367 Association of PC User Groups - Over 2000 UG officers
(714)727-4723 Superb support system for AST Computer Products
(908)769-6397 Support for PC 6300 and Other AT&T PC Models
(416)756-4591 Support for ATI Modems and Video Cards
(301)695-9116 22 line PCBoard with 5.5 GB of Files

(210)496-5558 Numerous Files, Info

(505)299-5974 36000 files/USA Today/Tradewars/Online Games

(516)471-8625 BBS Devoted to Collecting and Distributing Consumer Feedback

(602) 968-1082 Multi-Edit Product Support BBS

(919)541-1325 Environmental Protection Agency Atmospheric Models
(708)820-8344 6 GB 25 Nodes Fidonet/Interlink/Metronet MCe IL/CHI Graphics

(617)674-2345 Multiline Community Chat Service - Restuarant Review dbase
(713)530-8875 Home of Houston Area 713 BBS list, Connect Magazine

(713) 530-8875 Houston Area BBS list and Connect! Magazine

(903)758-2784 4 Gigs Online All Fidonet Message areas Over 200 door games

(714) 681-6221 Utilities/ASP/Patriquin Utils/Protocols

(818)988-0452 High-end Audio Components, Music, Video Reviews

(513)624-0552 New Car Pricing Reports - Used Car Value Reports
(301)252-0717 Software Distribution System - BBS Utilities

(214) 680-3406 Home of DFW Online Electronic Newsletter

(213)962-2902 Los Angeles’ First Super BBS Under Development
(617)964-2540 IBM PC Topics - TBBS Software (Internet)

(617)621-0882 General Topics - TBBS - Internet Mail
(617)864-0712 Macintosh Topics - Firstclass BBS Software

(510)849-2684 Support for Macintosh owners - files - conferences.

(813)337-4950 Over 100 online games - Internet Mail - 8 lines - 48000 fls
(310)371-3734 Home of EEEK! Bits - Weekly Electronic Trivia Magazine
(805)987-5506 200+ message areas 60+ file areas Fidonet VNet Adult Topics

(303)973-4222 Distribution Service for USA Today/Boardwatch/Newsbytes

(215) 657-6130 Information on 2000 Computer Books - 800 order number

(216) 694-5732 200,000 Book Titles Database - Online Ordering

(408)431-5096 Utilities, Macros, Programming Examples for Borland Products

(603) 431-7229 20 GB of Files - Adult areas - BBS Lists

(218)365-6907 Canoe Trips/Resorts/Fishing/Wilderness in Minnesota
(203)236-3761 24-line Social System - Chat - Games - Downloads
(303)733-0773 Support & Demo of Bryant Software & TBBS Products
(303)758-1551 Citations to 4 Million Texts in Colorado Library System FREE
(615)822-2539 Computer Aided Design File Distribution Network 1:116/32
(312)545-8086 First Electronic Bulletin Board - Since 2/16/78
(408)985-8982 80000 Compact Disks, Order Online (telnetxdconnection.com)

(416)213-6003 23GB/400000+ files, 3500 Conf’s,USENET, IBM/Amiga/Mac

(301 )738-9060 One of the oldest PC User’s Groups - 5500 members
(908)988-0706 Home of TABBY Fidonet Interface Program for Apple Macintosh

Michael Hajovsky

Queens

Chris Anderson/Susan Carlson

Eglin AFB

Department of Defense

Washington

Arizona Macintosh Users Group Inc.

Phoenix

Assoc, of North American Radio Clubs

Shawnee Mission

Paul Curtis/APCUG

Scotts Valley

AST Research Inc.

Irvine

American Telephone/Telegraph PC Division

Plainfield

ATI Technologies

Scarborough

Ontario

Blaine Brodka

Frederick

Robert Schoenert

San Antonio

Steven Fox

Albuquerque

Joseph G. Jerszynski

Ronkonkoma

American Cybernetics

Tempe

William Peterson/EPA

Hurdle Mills

Kevin Behrens/Steve Williams/Doug Bell

Aurora

Pam Morrison

Lexington

Connect Communications Co

HOuston

David Wachenschwanz

Houston

Walter Cade

Longview

Clint Bradford

Mira Loma

Guy Hickey/Quatre Speakers

Van Nuys

Automobile Consumer Services Inc.

Cincinnati

Tom Hendricks

Lutherville

Jay Gaines

Richardson

Jim Lee

Los Angeles

Boston Computer Society/Martin Hannigan

Boston

Boston Computer Society/Martin Hannigan

Boston

Boston Computer Society/Martin Hannigan

Boston

Berkeley Macintosh Users Group

Berkeley

Dave Ward

Fort Myers

J. Black/K. Taghadossi

Torrance

Lee Ladisky

Camarillo

Boardwatch Magazine

Littleton

Business & Computer Book Store

Willow Grove

Charles Stack

Cleveland

Borland International/Mike Fitz-Enz

Scotts Valley

Myles Bratter

Portsmouth

Gary Knopp/InfoNorth

Ely

Bruce Lomasky

West Hartford

Alan Bryant

Denver

Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries

Denver

Stan Bimson

Hendersonville

Ward Christensen/Randy Suess

Chicago

Neil Fleming/Jud Newell

Mississauga

Ontario

Capital PC Users Group/Roger Fajman

Rockville

Michael E. Connick

Bradley Beach

Caverns of the Abyss

(405)482-2980

4 Gigs Online CD Roms

Shannon Graham

Altus

Celebration Station

(207)667-0800

Adventure Games, Chat, and Sigs - Children

Noel Stookey (Paul of Peter, Paul & Mary)

Blue Hill Falls

Central Point Software

(503)690-6650

PC Tools - Central Point Anti-virus support board

Central Point Software Inc.

Beaverton

Channel 1

(617)354-8873

70-line PCBoard - 8 GB Files - Internet - 1000’s msg. confs.

Brian Miller/Tess Heder

Cambridge

Chicago SysLink

(708)795-4442

Special Interest Areas for Ferret/Pet Owners.TRS80/Aviation

George Matyaszek

Berwyn

Chinet

(312)283-0559

UNIX System offering Internet Mail

Randy Suess

Chicago

City Lites PCBoard

(701)772-5399

9 GB files, Rimenet, Internet, FidoNet, ASP, Online Orders

John Lundell

Grand Forks

City Online

(909)860-Line

City Government BBS Rip/Internet & more

Troy Butzlaff

Diamond Bar

Classified Connection BBS

(619)566-7347

Giffy Girls - Nude GIF Images of the Girl Next Door

Bill Kennon

San Diego

Cleveland Freenet

(216)368-3888

Cleveland City Info/Public Library - Free Internet Mail Box

Case Western University/AT&T/Ohio Bell

Cleveland

Cloud Nine

(713)855-4382

15 meg, 30 Nodes

Harold Lucas

Houston

Colorado Connection

(303)423-9775

Breeding, Raising, Taming, Exotic Birds

Terry Rune/Dave McClauggage

Arvada

Community News Service (CNS)

(719)520-5000

News and Entertainment -17 Lines Community Focus

Klaus Dimmler

Colorado Springs

Compact Audio Disk Exchange

(415)824-7603

Buy/Sell/Trade Compact Audio Disks Online

Wayne Gregori

San Francisco

Computer Business Services

(714)396-0014

Book/Publishing Consultant Nick Anis’ BBS

Nick Anis Jr.

Diamond Bar

Computer Business Services

(909)396-0014

Book/Publishing Consultant John C. Dvorak & Nick Anis' BBS

Nick Anis Jr.

Diamond Bar

Computer Garden

(301)546-1508

Treasure Hunting - Metal Detectors - Online Catalog

Milford P. Webster

Salisbury

Computing Canada Online

(416)497-5263

Adjunct to Excellent Canadian PC Newspaper

Computing Canada Newspaper

Willowdale

Ontario

Crosstalk Communications BBS

(404)740-8428

Product Support for Crosstalk for Windows/MK4/XVI

Digital Communications Associates

Roswell

Cul-de-Sac Bar & Grill

(508)429-1784

Multiline Service - Ham Radio - Humor - TDBS Applications

Pete White

Holliston

CyberStore - a COCONET BBS

(604)526-3676

All lines to v.32bis/v.42/v.42bis. CyberTools for BBS’es

CyberStore Online Info. Systems Inc.

New Westminster

DAK Online Resource Center

(818)715-7153

DAK Mail Order Catalog - Breakmakers - CD ROMS - Computers

DAK Industries/Tom Krogh

Canoga Park

DEMO Link

(303)220-0328

Free Demo Downloads of Quattro Pro/Lotus Magellan/More

BIX/Byte Magazine

DNIS

(619)864-1468

Outstanding BBS Gateway to multiple information services

Mike Simmons

Palm Springs

Dark Side of the Moon

(408)245-7726

Home of WAFFLE, Unix UUCP BBS Software for DOS and UNIX

Thornes E. Dell/Darkside International

Mountain View

Data Bank

(913)842-7744

Information HQ, Support Board, Net-Mail & Files

Bob Oyler

Lawrence

Data Core BBS

(310)842-6880

25 line Major BBS

Matthew Schoen/Delta Enterprises

Los Angeles

DataLink RBBS System

(214)394-7438

Weather Satellite Imaging, NOAA Satellite Tracking-AMSAT-NA

Dallas Remote Imaging Group/Jeff Wallach

Carrollton

Dawg Byte

(615)385-4268

ANSI Art Club 1:116/29

Kevin Snively

Nashville

Deep Cove BBS

(604)536-5885

16lineTBBS, 3500 MBytes files for IBM, MAC, Amiga

Wayne Duval

White Rock

Denver Exchange, The 104/909

(303)458-1227

28 Lines Adult BBS/Internet/Files/Chat/Games/Publications

James Craig

Denver

Denver Free-Net

(303)270-4865

Free Community Online Service - Health Info

University of Colorado Health Science

Denver

Digicom

(812)479-1310

Home of Tech Support BBS List, Online Magazines, 1.7 Gigs

Evansville

Distant Mirror BBS

(615)648-1782

Free Access BBS

Steve Perlo

Clarksville

Duke Graphics of San Diego

(619)793-8360

7 CD Roms Online, 4 gigs 50,000 files

Chris Duke

San Diego

EXEC-PC

(414)789-4210

Largest BBS in US - 280 Lines -650,000 files - 35 Gigabytes

Bob and Tracey Mahoney

Elm Grove

EarthArt BBS

(803)552-4389

Wildlife/Conservation Art Gallery GIF Images

Ambassador Wildlife Gallery/Bob Chapman

North Charleston

Ed-Net

(604)732-8877

Vancouver School Board Multi-Line Educational Network

Barry Macdonald/Vancouver Board of Ed

Vancouver

Electric Ideas Clearinghouse

(206)586-6854

Energy Efficiency Efforts In Pacific Northwest-HydroElec

Bonneville Power Administration WSE

Olympia

Electronic Publishers BBS

(503)624-4966

News-Finance-Sports-Games-2GB File Library

Brian Cash

Portland

Electronic Zone, The

(412)349-3504

Specializing in Hypertext

William R. Forbes

Indiana

Energy Info Admin E-Publications

(202)586-8658

Variety of Petroleum/Coal/Electricity Energy Statistics

US Department of Energy

Washington

D.C.

Entertainment & Graphics

(503)697-5100

Entertainment & Graphics

Jim Maxey

Lake Oswego

Event Florizons

(503)697-5100

64 Line Digitized Graphics Image Library - Adult .GIF files

Jim Maxey

Lake Oswego

Executive Network

(914)667-4567

Interlink Netmail National Host - Multiline PCBoard System

Andy Keeves

Mt. Vernon

Eye Contact BBS

(415)255-5972

22 line Oracomm - Gay Issues - Popular Chat System

Bill Montgomery

Mill Valley

FAA Flight Standards ASO-FSDO-15

(800)645-3736

FAA Flight Standards Publication & Info for the Aviation Com

FAA/Bill Hoenstine

Orlando

FAX/Satellite Services BBS

(619)224-3853

NOAA Weather Satellite Images - Russian/Japanese Sat Pics

Scotty Olson

San Diego

FCC Public Access Link

(301)725-1072

Equipment Authorization Status Advisory Service

Federal Communications Commission

Columbia

FCC WORLD

(202)887-5718

FCC Documents, Forums

Smithwick & Belendiuk, P.C.

Washington

FEDLINKALIX II

(202)707-4888

Info on Federal Libraries -Excerpts Library of Congress News

Federal Library Information Network

Washington

D.C.

FOG City BBS 125/10

(415)863-9697

Gay Community BBS - AIDS Info - Desktop Publishing - MACs

Bill Essex

San Francisco

Falken Support BBS

(703)803-8000

Support for FALKEN software -16 lines - doors - chat

Herb Rose

Woodbridge

Farwest BBS

(604)381-3934

Large Western Canada Galacticomm Info System

Ren L’Ecuyer

Victoria

Fido Tech Stand

31-30-735900

Fidonet Technical Information for Holland

J.J. van der Maas

Utrecht

Holland

BOARDWATCH magazine

NATIONAL LIST OF ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARDS AND ONLINE INFORMATION SERVICES - August 1994

SERVICE_PHONE_DESCRIPTION_SPONSOR/SYSOP LOCATION

Fire & Ice
Fisherman’s Net
Foundation Online Service
Fred the Computer
FreeBoard BBS, The
Fun Connection
GDP Technologies
GISnet BBS
GLIB

GPO WINDO Online Service
Galacticomm Demo System
Garbage Dump

Gateway Communications BBS

Gateway On-Line

General, The

Greenpeace Environet

HH Info-Net BBS

Hackers R Us Online

Hackers World BBS

Harris City Medical BBS

Hayes Advanced Systems Support

Heartland Free-net

Herpnet/Satronics TBBS

HoloNet

HouseNet BBS

Howard’s Notebook 1:280/25

Hysterics

IBM National Support Center BBS

Inbound/Outbound/Teleconnect

Infinite Space Online

InfoHost Demo BBS

Inns of Court, The

Intel PCEO Support BBS

Inter Comm

InterMail Tech Support BBS
Invention Factory
Investor’s Online Data
JDR Microdevices BBS
JOBBS

KIMBERELY BBS

Keith Graham Shareware Support

King’s Market BBS 104/115

Knight Vision BBS

LANtastic BBS

LICA Limbs BBS

Lace’s Place

Late Night Software 125/555
LegalEase

(313)373-8608

(614)837-0400

(203)968-8752

(508) 872-8461
(804)744-0797
(503)753-8431
(303)673-9470
(303)447-0927
(703)578-4542

(202) 512-1387
(305)583-7808
(505)294-5675
(714)863-7097
(313)291-5571
(619)281-8616
(415)512-9108

(203) 246-3747
(602)945-8416
(309)672-4405
(713)790-1093
(800)874-2937
(309)674-1100
(215)698-1905
(510)704-1058
(410)745-2037
(816)331-5868
(613)231-7144
(404)835-5300
(212)989-4675

(407) 856-0021
(201)335-2253
(214)458-2620
(503)645-6275
(702)359-2666
(305)436-1884

(212) 274-8110
(206)285-5359

(408) 559-0253
(404)992-8937
(612)340-2489
(914)623-0039
(303)665-6091

(213) 344-3600
(602)293-8065
(516)561-6590
(718)822-3552
(415)695-0759

(509) 326-3238

A Family BBS With Christians Discussions
Dedicated to Fisherman
15+ Gigs 8 Lines Internet

Newspaper BBS. Wierdnet Newswire. List of MA Libraries

Desktop Publishing File Distribution Network 1:264/212

Multiline Entertainment - 8 Lines Games/Chat/News

Outstanding IBM Shareware on a small system

Graphics Information Systems/Mapping topics

Gay and Lesbian Information Bureau -11 Lines - 9600 bps

Fed Information from EPA, DOE, State Department - others.

Customer support for Major BBS

Hottest Chat in America - National Access $1.75 per Hour

Novell Netware/TCP-IP Shareware Utilities

Interactive Chat,MulitiplayerGames,Usenet/Internet,E-mail

Popular File Library - GIF Images

Ecological and Peace Issues - Disarmament/Toxics/Wildlife
MS Windows and OS/2 Files our specialty
Online Games, Files & Tech Discussions
Adult Files, Fidonet Echo-Mail Adult-net
Medical Information

Customer Support Line for Hayes Customers. V-series/Ultra

Community Online Service - Free Internet E-Mail Boxes

Reptile and Amphibian Studies - Poison Snakes/Toads/Fish

National Access,INTERNET,USENET,CHAT,GIFS,FILES

Home Fixup/Repair/Renovation Tips, Advice, and Articles

Environmental, Peace, Justice since 1982 - 4 nodes

Amiga File Distribution Network 1:163/109

IBM PC User Groups Database - Newsletter Exchange

Telephone Sales Trade Magazine Online Service

32 Line Interactive Chat & Games Majornet

Demo BBS for InfoHost BBS Software - Multiline - Database

LAN Related Files and Utilities 1:124/6101

Support for Intel PC Products - Inboard 386/AboveBoard 286

6 Line 5.5 Gig 30,000 Files

Home of InterMail, Front End Mailer for FidoNet 1:369/102

46 Lines -100 Directories - Full Usenet Feed - 8.2 GB

Online Investment/Stock Market Information/Tech Analysis

Online Hardware Order - Catalog -1.1 GB Files - Quizzes

Online Job Listings - 2186 Technical Pos. - 10,000 Corps.

Prime Rate-Fed Funds-T-Bill-Discount Rate-Economic Data

OPTIK, TEXT2COM, CBOOT, very good shareware utilities

400 MB Books, Writers Area - TRS 80 Support

Chess and Backgammon - 8 lines - “Intelligent Entertainment”

Support for LANtastic local area network

Member written software PC Board 15.0 USR HST Since 1980

Female Domination Adult BBS online since 7/91

Home of UFGATE - Software to connect PCs to UUCP/Usenet

Legal issues/Forms - Law BBS List

William Sims

Drayton Plains

Lloyd Davidson

Carroll

David Deutsch

Stanford

Middlesex News-Adam Gaffin

Framingham

Bill Hunter

Midlothian

Vincent Reece

Corvallis

Tom Getty’s

Lafayette

Bill Thoen

Boulder

Community Educational Svcs. Foundation

Arlington

US Government Printing Office

Washington

Galacticomm

Fort Lauderdale

FL-

Dean Kerl & Simon Clement

Albquerque

Carol De Jesus

Irvine

Jeff Breitner/Bill Mullen

Rockwood

Marc Teitler

San Diego

Dick Dillman/Greenpeace

San Francisco

Lee Winsor

New Hartford

David Ray

Scottsdale

Martin Belcke

Peoria

Monica Faulk

Houston

Hayes Microcomputer Products

Norcross

Peoria County Board/Bradley University

Peoria

Mark Miller

Philadelphia

Information Access Technologies, Inc.

Berkeley

Gene and Katie Hamilton

St. Michaels

Jim Howard

Kansas City

Russell McOrmond

Ottawa, Ontario

IBM National Support Center

Atlanta

Harry Newton Publications

New York

Charlie Scherker

Orlando

A-Comm Electronics Inc.

Hasbrouch Heights NJ

Arthur Geffen

Dallas

Intel Corporation PCEO Division

Hillsborough

Roger Brown

Spark

Patrik Bertilsson

Hollywood

Mike Sussell

New York

Don Shepherdson

Bellevue

JDR Microdevices

San Jose

Alpha Systems Inc./Bill Griffin

Roswell

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Minneapolis

Keith P. Graham

Nyack

Jim and Karen Burt

Boulder

Matthew Beelby

Pasadena

Artisoft Inc.

Tucson

Dave Minott

Valley Stream

Ellen Grogan

New York City

Tim Pozar

San Francisco

Bill Sorcinelli

Spokane

Lincoln Cabin BBS
MAC-LINK

METRO Online Entertainment

MOG-UR’S EMS, The

MacCircles

Maclnternational

Macalot Bulletin Board

Magpie BBS

MaxiHost Support BBS

Mayan Antiquities

McAfee Associates BBS

Med Technet

Medi-Call BBS

Meeting Works, The

Micro Foundry, The

Micro Message Service

Microrim Technical Support BBS

Microsoft Download BBS

Microsystems Software Inc.

MindVox

Minnesota Space Frontier
Monterey Gaming System
Mountain Air BBS
Movie BBS
Mustang Software
N.A.C.D. BBS
N8EMR Ham BBS
NAPLPS Graphics BBS
NASA Spacelink
NIST ACTS

NOAA Space Environment Lab
Namu BBS
Nashville Exchange
National Genealogical BBS
Netcom Internet Guest System
Network World Bulletin Board
Newbed

Newtown Express BBS
Night Shift, The
NoGate Consulting
North Castle BBS
O&E Online
OAQPSTTN
OASIS BBS
ODYSSEY
OERI BBS

Occupational Health/Safety BBS
Odyssey

Old Colorado City Communications
Online Now
Online With Hayes
Oracle PC

Oracomm Support BBS
Osprey’s Nest
Ozone Hole, The

(415)752-4490

(514)486-8959

(212)831-9280

(818)366-1238

(303)526-2219

(803)798-3755

(412)846-5312

(212)420-0527

(209)836-2402

(214) 691-1316
(408)988-4004
(716)688-1552
(818)330-1739
(212)737-6932
(415)598-0398
(919)779-6674
(206)649-9836
(206)936-6735
(508)875-8009
(212)989-4141

(612) 459-0892
(408)655-5555
(703)427-0226

(718) 939-5462
(805)873-2400

(912) 246-3280

(614) 895-2553

(613) 727-5272
(205)895-0028
(303)494-4775
(303)497-5042

(913) 273-1550

(615) 383-0727
(703)528-2612
(408)241-9760
(508)620-1178

(506) 453-2147

(215) 943-6806
(818)955-5155

(616) 530-3392

(507) 281-8292
(313)591-0903
(919)541-5742
(404)627-2662
(818)358-6968
(800)222-4922
(212)385-2034
(818)358-6968

(719) 632-4111
(807)345-5522
(404)446-6336
6108 260-6222
(612)894-5879
(301)989-9036
(504)891-3142

General Interests & Rime

Macintosh Oriented Support BBS - 6 Lines - Infomat/BIX
32 line DLX with City Guide/Ski Database - Matchmaker - Chat
5 Lines - 8 Networks CD-ROMS - 2.8 GB Hub Services HSTA/.32
Mac System Software distributor, mail, sigs, files
Macintosh support since April ‘85. FirstClass BBS
Support for Second Sight BBS Software for Macintosh
Support/Demo System for Magpie BBS/Conferencing Software
MaxiHost BBS - small, very easy to run BBS
Mayan Culture and Antiquities

Computer Virus Information - VIRUSCAN and CLEANUP
Educational research for Clinical Laboratory professionals
Active 2 lines PubSvc w/120 netmail confs., & GIGs of Files
Meeting/seminar/convention planning information.

2.2 GB Downloads - Your Online Software Source - Boardwatch
USA Today/Boxoffice Magazine - Large Download Area
Support for Popular R:Base Relational Data Base System
Windows Technical Notes and Support Information
HandiWare Software for Handicapped - CodeRunner C Utilities
Internet Access, E-Mail, Newsgroups, ftp/telnet
Minnesota Space Frontier Society - NASA News
A Custom Multi-user BBS with Conferencing and Custom Games
Adult Based BBS

Movie Reviews and Information - Television

Support for Mustang Software Products

Cave Scuba Diving - Superb Special Topic System

NAPLPS Graphics Terminal and Editor Software

NASA Educational Affairs Div. - Flight Data/Space History

Automated Computer Telephone Service - Sync PC to NBS Time

Solar Flare/Geomagnetic Data Online

Amateur Radio Interests

12 line TBBS - Games/TDBS Software Development 1.8 GB
Family History - Genealogical Research - Gravestone Haunting
internet Access System - type “guest” at login for info.

LAN and WAN Issues and Technology
Educational System K12Net

14.5 Gigs/700+Sigs 18 Lines Large Adult Section USA Today
16 lines/chat/Usenet Newsgroups/Internet Mail/USATODAY
Home of PAK archive utility
Minnesotas #1 RPG BBS

Free Community BBS, Editorial Text from Newspapers

Air Quality Planning and Standards Technology Transfer Net

Home of Atlanta Bulletin Board List - ABBL

Largest Adult Based Entertainment Service In North America

Educational Statistics and Data - Performance Stats -

Job Safety Issues for Artists, Musicians, Entertainers

Adult Multiline Chat System - Games - Magazines - Downloads

Political Discussions - Unix UUCP Public Access - Multiline

Canada’s shareware house is online now

Hayes Public Bulletin Board - Conferences/SIGS/Support

South Australian TBBS Multiline System

Sales and Support for Oracomm Multiline BBS Software

Birdwatching, Bird feeding, Naturalist/Ecology Issues

Boardwatch-USA Today-Internet-Usenet-RIME

Steve Pomerantz

San Francisco

Mark Smith

Montreal

Quebec

Bruce Kamm/Metro Online Services

New York City

Tom Tcimpidis

Granada Hills

Patricia O’Connor

Golden

Ralph Yount

Columbia

Jeff Dripps/FreeSoft Company

Beaver Falls

Steve Manes

New York

Don Mankin

San Ramon

Ron Whipple

Dallas

John McAfee/CVIA

Santa Clara

Bill Hliwa

East Amherst

Gordon Huyck

La Puenet

John Mackenzie

New York

Thomas Nelson/Clockwork Software

San Jose

Mike Stroud

Raleigh

Microrim Corporation

Redmond

Microsoft Corp/Scott J. Honaker

Bellevue

MSI - Reed Lewis

Framingham

Phantom Access Technologies

New York

Ben Husset

Minneapolis

David Janakes

Monterey

Edward Lee Wood, Jr.

Roanoke

Clarke Ulmer

New York

MSI Sysop

Bakersfield

National Assoc, of Cave Divers

Gainsville

Gary Sanders

Westerville

MicroStar Corp.

Nepean

Ontario

Marshall Space Flight Center

Huntsville

Nat. Institute for Standards/Technology

Boulder

National Oceanographic/Atmospheric Admin

Boulder

Rob Nall

Topeka

Ben Cunningham

Nashville

National Genealogical Society

Arlington

Netcom Online Communications Services

San Jose

Network World Magazine

Framingham

William Brydges

Fredeeriction

Anthony Maglietta

Newton

Charles Hilt

Burbank

Mike Neuhaus Gus Smedstad

Grand Rapids

Rob Richter

Rochester

Greg Day

Livonia

Environmental Protection Agency

Rsrch Triangle ParkNC

Robert Orr/Online Atlanta Society

Decatur

Michael Allen

Monrovia

US Department of Education

Washington

D.C.

Mike McCann/Center for Safety in Arts

New York

Michael Allen

Monrovia

Dave Hughes

Colorado Springs

Gary Walsh/Tom Haavisto

Thunder Bay

Ontario

Hayes Microcomputer Products

Norcross

Don Crago

Pooraka South

Australia

Surf Computer Services

Minneapolis

Fran and Norm Saunders

Colesville

Mike Mathews

New Orleans

BOARDWATCH magazine

NATIONAL LIST OF ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARDS AND ONLINE INFORMATION SERVICES - August 1994

SERVICE

PHONE

DESCRIPTION

SPONSOR/SYSOP

LOCATION

P.D.S.L.O. BBS

(516)938-6722

PC Junction BBS

(615)478-2890

PC Ohio

(216)381-3320

PHYSICS Forum BBS

(413)545-1959

PKWare BBS

(414)354-8670

PacComm BBS

(813)874-3078

Pennywise

(800)752-3012

Pinecliffe BBS 104/28

(303)642-7463

Pinnacle Software BBS

(514)345-8654

Pipeline, The

(209)592-9861

Pleasure Dome

(804)490-5878

Practical Peripherals BBS

(805)496-4445

ProComm Support BBS

(314)875-0503

Promised Land, The

(715)387-1339

Public Brand Software BBS

(317)856-2087

Public Connection

(817)738-7336

QMail Deluxe Support BBS

(615)230-8822

Qualitas, Inc. BBS

(301)907-8030

Quarterdeck BBS

(310)314-3227

QuickBBS Support BBS 363/34

(407)896-0494

Random Access Information Svc.

(503)695-3250

RoboBOARD/FX

(819)682-7771

Rose Media

(416)733-2780

Rusty & Edies

(216)726-0737

SBA Online

(800)697-4636

SDN Project, The 1:141/840

(203)634-0370

SEAboard!

(804)442-6047

SENDIT

(701)237-3283

SIGCAT BBS

(703)648-4168

STSC BBS

(801)774-6509

Sahara Club BBS

(818)893-1899

Salt Air BBS

(801)261-8976

San Diego NeXT User's Group BBS

(619)456-2522

Science Resource Studies BBS

(202)634-1764

Seagate Technical Support BBS

(408)438-8771

Searchlight BBS

(216)631-9285

SemWare Support BBS

(404)641-8968

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Packet Radio Equipment Supplier - TNC/PSK Modems

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Support for Sapphire BBS Software

Construction topics for contractors, suppliers, public works

Sexually Explicit Fantasy Chat System - Adults only

Support BBS for Practical Peripherals Modems

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19 GB - Home of Rosemail - Publications/Conferences

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North Dakota K-12 Educational Net-telnet sendit.nodak.edu
CD-ROM /Optical Publishing Info - Lists of Gov. CD Data
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Land-Use issues, Off-Road, Timber, Conservation
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Support for NeXT Computers

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Installation and Specifications for Hard Drive Models

Support system for Searchlight BBS Software

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Hicksville

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National Review/Heritage Foundation

Washington

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UK.

Software@work

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Gilroy

US Robotics Corporation

Skokie

US Dept, of Commerce US Naval Obser

Washington

D.C.

US Dept, of Education/George Wagner

Washington

DC.

US Geological Survey Earthquake Info Cnt

Denver

US Naval Observatory

Washington

D.C.

University of Texas at Austin

Austin

Wayne Bell

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Steve Root/WeatherBrief Data Services

Salt Lake City

Western Digital Corporation

Irvine

MSI - Mustang Software, Inc.

Bakersfield

Jim Taylor

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Joseph G. Balshone

Columbus

Word Perfect Corporation

Orem

Bill Gram-Reefer

Concord

XTree Company

San Luis Obispo

XyQuest Inc. - Christine Madsen

Bellerica

Bill Scarborough/Cyanosis Rex

Austin

Z/Max Computer Solutions, Inc.

Baldwinsville

Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.81

ADP Autonet.94

APDI.31

Arsnel Computer.85

B-3 Corporation.124

Baylor Instruments and Technologies, Inc.117

BBS Guide.94

BBS Subscription AD.101

BBS Technologies.35

BFP Communications.55

Brookstone Production.16

Business BBS, The. 37, 76

Byte Runner.84

CD Archive, Inc.123

CDS.117

Clark Development, Inc.18

Clark Development, Inc.121

Classified Connection.86

Connections BBS.127

CSI...55

Dallas Remote Imaging Group.85

DataSafe Publications, Inc.43

Delphi - General Videotex.49

Delta Comm Development.143

DFW Electronics.55

Digicom Systems, Inc.42

Digital Dynamics.77

DIGITAL UNIVERSE/DUAL ONLINE.122

DSC.44

Durand Communications.72, 95

EC Computer Services, Inc.44

EMS Professional Shareware.125

eSoft, Inc..138, 14, 6

Event Horizons.79

Exec-PC.39

Fantasy Land Computer Services.,.122

Fashion World.84

Galacticomm, Inc.144, 2

Glacticomm, Inc.121

GTEK...86

GW Associates.37

Hamilton Telegraphies, Inc.142

Hayes Microcomputer.15

HIGHER TECHNOLOGY SERVICES.127

IAN, Inc.91

Imagen, Inc.127

INDEX System, The.44, 94

Infolink.125, 86

Information Access Technologies, Inc.79

Integrated Solutions\Online Services.35, 84, 89, 99

Iris Silhouette.123

Just For Fun.101

Keyhole Publications.124

Logicom, Inc.59

Mike Robinson Software.123

MMB Development.36

Modern BBS.101

Mustang Software, Inc.29, 32, 45

NetManage.55

Online Technologies.122, 125

Page Sat, Inc.83

Planet Systems, Inc.87

Prodigy......46

Profit Group.41

S&H Computer Systems,Inc.137

Searchlight Software.52

Software Agents, Inc.98

Soleau Software.83

Summit Software Services.126

SUMMITVIEW ENTERPRISES.126

Supra Corporation.27

Teleflora.85

Telegrafix Communications, Inc.50

Trader’s Connection.75

UNI-ROM.91

Vector Services Corp.93

VHBG.84

World Class Software.124

ZyXEL.23

136 Boardwatch - July 1994

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INTERNET JUNKIES
JOIN OTHER CRACKPOTS
TO WREST CONTROL OF
THE COMPUTING SCENE
AWAY FROM OLD-TIMERS

lomputers are my hobby. I’m one of
the few computer columnists
writing in mainstream journals who can
still say that. I think Bill Machrone at
PC Magazine might also admit to this.
The rest of the hobbyists have bailed
out and are off doing weird
things or
exploring
t h e I R C
o n t h e
Internet.
Too many
have been
shirking
their

responsibility to the hobby and they’ve
let the direction of computing be
controlled by the nutballs.

Most of the computer hobbyists fan
away in the mid 1980s when the
computer magazines went after busi¬
ness users. If you can’t talk to the busi¬
ness user, you’re out of luck nowadays.
I have people complain to me that I talk
to the business user TOO MUCH and I
should go back to my 1976 hobbyist
roots. I counter-argue that the
computer hobbyists are losing numbers
and we have to cajole the business guys
into becoming hobbyists by adding some
park to the scene. You can’t get people

car collecting unless you show them
some neat cars to collect. Same
with computers as a hobby. They need
to find out cool things. I make it a point
to talk about chips and faster computers
and wildly interesting software to
generate enthusiasm. Sometimes I feel
I’m alone in the forest when I do this
because not enough hobbyists are cham¬
pioning the hobby nowadays.

In the late 1970s the computer hobby
craze was going strong. The computer
magazines were geared for enthusiasts.
There were a slew of books for begin¬
ners. As an aside I should mention that
the dirth of books for beginners until
DOS FOR DUMMIES was a function of
the book publishers who all said that
beginners books don’t sell. This asser¬
tion is a classic if you think about it. I
mean how can books for beginners not
sell? It’s what books are for. Crappy
books for beginners don’t sell — THAT
was the problem and it was turned into
a generality. But I digress.

In the 1970s there were plenty of users
groups soliciting newcomers. There
were numerous socialistic ideals being
promoted. The People’s Computer
Company was a typical publishers
name. Computers were seen as some¬
thing beneficial and useful and
somehow helpful in some future
world. As they became spreadsheet
machines and word processors, the
H*| idealists hoping for something
grand in all this decided that the
W excitement was someplace else. A
II good portion of the hobbyists went
S into and developed the bulletin
board scene. Many cut themselves
off from mainstream computing. I
fear that many of them will be
whip sawed if the platform shift to
the PowerPC from the current
PC/Mac world occurs in the next few
years because they haven’t been
keeping up with trends. (I say this only
because I can still find BBSs running at
2400 baud!)

They too have become like the dullards
who go to COMDEX. Bored. Unin¬
spired. A worse trend, though, is the
growth of the Internet as fueled by
newcomers who have suddenly discov¬
ered modems. To this group of narrow
focused hobbyists, the Internet is life
itself. Very few Internet junkies (I call
the Internet “the Crack Cocaine of
Computing”) have a clue about the
office computing, BBSs or computing in

general. Worse, after a month on the
Net (as everyone lovingly calls it) these
folk consider themselves computer
experts with royalty status. It’s unbe¬
lievable. It’s particularly incredible
when you play on the Net with anything
other than Mosaic. Can you spell
“Clunker?”

Then there’s the IRC. I’ve written
about this monstrosity in a number of
publications saying how out-of-control
it is with weird racist crap scattered
about. I was recently e-mailed by some
blokes who told me how it’s actually
policed and that people monitor it and
bad guys are tossed off. And cows can
fly. I can go on the IRC anytime of the
day and find something terribly offen¬
sive. And I’m a libertarian by nature!

So while the sincere up-to-date BBS
operators struggle because the media
equates them with child porn while it
equates the Net with “Information
Superhighway!” the would-be hobbyist
recruit sides with the Internet crowd.
They get all gah-gah over the Net and
how you can send mail and download
files and look into a database. Holy
Mackerel! When did these miracles
arrive!!!

It’s enough to make you sick. With
50,000 BBSs around the country with
all sorts of mail systems and Internet
features for the last 15 years, you’d
think someone would take notice.
Nope.

What this means is that most BBSs will
have to eventually become Internet
access providers as Jack Rickard has
asserted in these pages. He’s right.
Gee we can all spend our time bored out
of our wits trying to keep up with a
bunch of crappy news groups whose
messages consist of huge and ludicrous
Internet headers followed by comments
such as “Sez You!” This two word
message is followed by the senders
dweebish handle which you immediately
realize is owned by some hopeless
Internet geek who scammed his account
from the Supercomputing Center and
spends all his waking hours
contributing what he thinks is stirring
commentary. Finally, to waste more
bytes, at the end of these insightful
messages there’s a ASCII box created
with dashes and colons in which is
contained every conceivable e-mail
address for Mr. “Sez Who?” followed by
an irrelevant but coy quote from

140 Boardwatch - August 1994

Plutarch, or, worse, a stupid pun he
stole from an AOL profile.

Is this what online communication is
coming down to? Is this the Informa¬
tion Superhighway? I think it is. And I
also think it’s going to get a lot worse
before it gets any better. This is
because the fresh hobbyist blood is
heading to the Net and without the
control and perspective of the old-
timers, these kids will go nuts.

Take that dumb box at the end of every
Internet e-mail message that 90% of the
Internet users attach. Imagine a movie
instead of the ASCII box. Yes, a movie.
The guy himself can be at the bottom of
the screen endlessly waving. Little
phrases can be coming out of his
moving mouth showing up as cartoon
balloons. A database of Greek philos¬
ophy can spew from the little head at
the bottom. Thank goodness only
ASCII is used today or this kind of
weirdness would dominate the
messages. I’ve always thought
imbedded photos in text were bad
enough, but when they started to
promote the idea that a message could
have a quicktime movie or some such
thing in it, then I became concerned.

The next thing to take place on the Net
is going to be desktop video sex. This
will start out as a picture and voice
coming over the net and being displayed
on the computer. You can figure out for
yourself what might go on between two
lovers in this context. When this tech¬
nology was first explained to me my
comment was, “I think that if many of
these people actually see each other
they won’t be too terribly turned on, if
you know what I mean.” The retort
was simple, “They won’t be seeing each
other, everyone will be using aliases!
That’s the beauty of it!” In other
words, long before sexy Kimberley, that
Northwestern teaching assistant you’ve
been sending hot e-mail to over the Net,
goes on screen to do her Net striptease
for you and the frat brothers, she will
have already created a bogus image.
For all you know, Kimberley might even
be a guy with some good voice
processing software. But what you see
is a Kim Bassinger lookalike on the
screen. Puh-leeeze! This concept really
sucks and the Internet junkies are
telling me it’s hot. Meanwhile, as this
abomination progresses, the virtual
reality crackpots and multi-media
mavens are forming an unholy alliance
with the Net junkies. We’re talking
about every screwball geek, loose
cannon, and bug-eyed nerd in the world
here — all joining forces. The only

thing missing from this ungodly mix are
the techno-musicians. Luckily most of
them can’t afford good new computers
and will instead be holding on to old
Amigas.

This Golly-gee-whiz triad actually hopes
to control the future of everyday
computing. They have the youthful
vigor, the thrilled newcomers and the
insane futurists. The old hobbyists are
like IBM — pooped out. Just look
around. Nobody even admits to being a
computer hobbyist. “What’s your
hobby?” Who says “computers”
anymore? Say, “Net Surfer, man!” or
“Multi-media production” or “virtual
reality” and you’ll elicit a “Cool!” Go
ahead and say “computers.” Geek!

MIKE RAY’S CORN-
MEAL PANCAKES

Over the years I’ve collected odd
recipes from friends and some¬
times the origin is lost completely.
This is an example. Found on a 3
x 5 card in the bottom of a drawer
it has a handwritten note scribbled
on the side: “Mike Ray says they
are like heaven.” For pancake
lovers looking for something
different, these fill the bill. Try
them with blue and red cornmeal if
you want to start a conversation.

I probably collected this recipe in
the late 1970’s when I was on a
jonny-cake jag having bought a
variety of stone ground grains from
various small east coast mills.

Ingredients:

3 eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 pound butter

Beat whites stiff and set aside.
Thoroughly mix buttermilk, yolks
and sifted dry ingredients. Add
melted butter, mix. Finally fold in
beaten egg whites. Cook as you
would a normal pancake. Serves 6.

Down in the
Big Queasy

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have a picture.

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* Works with any host - Major, TBBS,
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* Simple menu tree system or full
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* Easy hypertext menuing.

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Boardwatch - August 1994 141

Features!

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640x480x16 to 1024x768x256 SVGA.
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T M

Online GIF Previewing from file areas.
Point and shoot interface.

Dragging windows, buttons and scrollers
Realtime icon transfers (no duplications).
Word processor message editor.

Upload, download and print messages.
Lightning fast database files system.
Seamless CD-ROM support.

Resuming ZModem.

Multiline Chat. PfOfCS

ANSI support.

Multilanguage support.

Programmable Templates and Menus.
Bullet Proof Security.

Virus scanner support.

Message and file forums.

Call back verifier & Time Bank Included.
Multiline/Local LAN support.

DESQview multiline ready.

DigiBoard, Fossil, UART support.

Free Tel-FX graphical terminal.

VGA /SVGA drawing package included.
Only DOS required! Five minute install.
Free Telephone Support!

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RoboBOARD and Tel-FX are trademarks of Hamilton TeleGraphics Inc. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

A New Age In Telecommunications Is Here!

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News 11 11

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NEW FILE LIBRARY. Now with full-screen tagging,
multi-directory library areas, support for CD-ROM
changers, automatic DIZ-file extraction, new keyword
search engine, and much more.

TURBO-CHARGED PERFORMANCE. We clocked
100 channels at 19.2K simultaneously downloading
separate files with a 1751 CPS rate each — all on a sin¬
gle Pentium computer with no server or special hard
drive caching.

OUT-OF-THE-BOX RIPSCRIP. Hot-looking,
mouse-driven menus — all automatically generated.
Auto-detect of RIP support at connect time. The
RIVaint Add-on Option is available as an integrated
DLL to let you create your own customized screens.

NEW POLLS AND QUESTIONNAIRES. Launch as
many polls/questionnaires as you want, with different
priority levels, intelligent branching, auto-tallying, user
account hooks, and the ability to grant access keys,
online time, and files after a poll is taken.

28.8K MODEM SUPPORT. Lock ports at up to
57.6K. On a Pentium-class computer you can handle
over 64 of these modems. Configure up to 16 “channel
groups” for flexible connectivity.

INTEGRATED QWK MAIL. Callers can download
all their Forum and E-mail messages in a single ZIP’d
packet to read offline. Replies can be easily uploaded.
Works with all popular QWK mail readers.

IMPROVED MHS IMPORTING. Speeds up the
delivery of your mail through products such as our
Major Gateway/Internet and third-party products such
as MailLink, NetAccess, DaVinci E-mail, etc.

ENHANCED ADD-ON OPTIONS. New versions of
our Search and Retrieve document database, the
Entertainment Collection (now with ChatLink!), and
Major Gateway/Internet are now available too.

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Bulletin Board

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All this is in addition to everything you have come to
expect from Galacticomm: lots of simultaneous users on
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connectivity via modems, serial ports, LANs, and X.25.

HARDWARE PRICES SLASHED. Galacticomm’s
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less! The GalactiBox now lists for $1,495 for 16 chan¬
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WIDER AVAILABILITY. We’ve recruited many new
dealers and distributors, added more sales and support
staff, doubled our in-house telephone capacity, and
licensed many new translations of The Major BBS.

For more information, see your dealer
or call us directly at 1-800-328-1128
(305-583-5990 outside the U.S. and Canada).

0GALACTICOMM

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Since March 1987, Boardwatch Magazine has served as the leading monthly publication covering electronic bulletin
boards and online information services. Each issue is packed with information on hundreds of specialized low cost BBS
systems, Shareware software releases, information databases, successful online services, developments in our nation’s
telephone system, hardware and software reviews, profiles of PC communications industry players and infopreneurs,
and tips on how to get the MOST value from your modem and PC at the least cost. Read the BBS industries’ favorite
insider’s magazine - Boardwatch.

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Since March 1987, Boardwatch Magazine has served as the leading monthly publication covering electronic bulletin
boards and online information services. Each issue is packed with information on hundreds of specialized low cost BBS
systems, Shareware software releases, information databases, successful online services, developments in our nation's
telephone system, hardware and software reviews, profiles of PC communications industry players and infopreneurs,
and tips on how to get the MOST value from your modem and PC at the least cost. Read the BBS industries’ favorite
insider’s magazine - Boardwatch.

"If you're even remotely interested in the BBS scene, then you have to get a subscription to Jack Rickard's
BOARDWATCH...outstanding...a gem of a resource.

John C. Dvorak, PC Magazine, Oct 31, 1989

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Since March 1987, Boardwatch Magazine has served as the leading monthly publication covering electronic bulletin
boards and online information services. Each issue is packed with information on hundreds of specialized low cost BBS
systems, Shareware software releases, information databases, successful online services, developments in our nation's
telephone system, hardware and software reviews, profiles of PC communications industry players and infopreneurs,
and tips on how to get the MOST value from your modem and PC at the least cost. Read the BBS industries’ favorite
insider’s magazine - Boardwatch.

"If you're even remotely interested in the BBS scene, then you have to get a subscription to Jack Rickard's
BOARDWATCH...outstanding...a gem of a resource.

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ONE BBSCON

ATLANTA

AUGUST 17-21,1994

I ' ' A

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A Special Invitation

to the

Phil Becker

Secretary/Treasurer, ONE, Inc.

ONE BBSCON

Jack Rickard

President, ONE, Inc.

The Online A/etworking Exposition and BBS
Convention (ONE BBSCON) has emerged over
the past three years as one of the brightest stars
in the trade show universe - and for the very best
of reasons. It has been superbly effective in pro¬
viding attendees with the two things they most
want in an educational gathering - hard, useable
information; and an opportunity to network with
the industry players in one of the most exciting
arenas of today’s technology.

Last year, ONE BBSCON presented some 137 in-
depth educational sessions and seminars in three
days - a presentation schedule so hectic no other
trade show organizer even attempts it. This
effort to encapsulate the hundreds of areas of
online activity that comprise the current explo¬
sion in PC communications resulted in as many
as eleven seminars occurring at any one time cov¬
ering everything from satellite delivery to ISDN,
building communities online to Internet connec¬
tivity issues, from attracting callers, to making
problem callers go away, from copyright issues
and pornography to telecom in education - and all

of it on a how-to, what-to, when-to, and why-to
level - no happy talk or visionary thinktank bab-
blegobble. This year, the community promises to
deliver exceptional low-cost solutions to world¬
wide Internet connectivity for PC-based bulletin
boards - a connectivity solution at an absurdly
low price. And nearly 250 product vendors are
hoping to show their newest connectivity product
rollouts designed specifically to make a splash at
this one show. If you want to know how to do it
online, you’ll find it somewhere in the halls of i
ONE BBSCON. v

The second benefit of ONE BBSCON is, of course,
the networking. The deal making in the halls
and hospitality suites of ONE BBSCON reaches
such a fevered frenzy of entrepreneurial energy -
24 hours per day from Wednesday to Sunday, that
just being in the room with it will leave you weak
in the knees - literally. From behemoths like
Rockwell International, IBM, AT&T, Hayes
Microcomputer Products, and MCI, to single line
BBS operators, tiny software development com¬
panies, and third-grade school teachers, all claim

ONE BBSCON - Atlanta '94

to have “discovered” this one convention as the
pre-eminent networking opportunity of the year.

Aside from who’s selling what to whom, you’ll see
educators swapping notes with teen-age software
developers, federal government BBS administra¬
tors picking up tips from home-based BBS entre¬
preneurs, Internet service providers waving their
arms at BBS software developers, IRS managers
huddled with CompuServe forum administrators,
shareware software developers talking with cred¬
it card merchant account representatives, and
attendees from some 30 countries all seeking to
find that one piece of the puzzle they need to take
back home with them to make their online ser¬
vice successful. Judging from the number of new
product and industry announcements directly
traceable to last year’s convention, it is utterly
clear that they are finding it. And each and every
attendee takes home just a bit more than they
brought with them.

But aside from these two concrete benefits, ONE
BBSCON has a third element you must experi¬
ence at least once to comprehend. It is a form of
energy - an energy of enthusiasm borne of being
a key part in the birth of an exciting new indus¬
try that has the potential to change the world.
While the rest of the world buzzes about in mixed
confusion over the “coming National Data
SuperHighway,” the “National Information
Infrastructure,” and the joys of “CyberSpace,”
ONE BBSCON attendees represent the online
construction workers who are actually building it
today where it matters - at the precise point
where an individual computer user connects to

the online world. It is exactly where the “rubber
meets the road” on this otherwise ethereal data
highway, and these are the people who have to
ANSWER questions NOW from callers who’ve
made that first connection and demand to know.

There will likely be several hundred hastily cob-
bled-together seminars, conventions, and events
held this year on the Internet, the National Data
SuperHighway, bulletin boards, and variations on
the theme. It’s a hot topic and everyone’s getting
onboard. Attend all of them if you’ve the time.
We’re confident that if you do, ONE BBSCON
this August will STILL be your FIRST real point
of contact with the techniques, information, tech¬
nology, and people you’ll need to prosper, profit,
and thrive on this future byway of commerce.

But if you’ve time for only ONE trade show this
year, find someone who has already successfully
realized their dream of building that successful
BBS at home and escaped the corporate job track
forever - or the hero in your own company (or
your competition’s) that turned the world around
with an inexpensive PC in a closet that now out¬
produces some company departments. Find that
BBS operator that already offers global Internet
e-mail and ftp connections, and ask them directly.
Chances are they DID attend ONE BBSCON last
year and they won’t stutter with the answer -
“There’s only one - ONE BBSCON.”

This year’s ONE BBSCON in Atlanta Georgia
promises to be the biggest and the most exciting
international gathering of BBS operators in his¬
tory. We invite you to join us.

Jack Rickard, President
ONE, Inc.

Philip L. Becker, Secretary/Treasurer
ONE, Inc.

ONE BBSCON - Atlanta '94

SPECIAL AFFILIATIONS FOR
THIS YEAR’S EVENT

This year, ONE BBSCON will broaden to include a num¬
ber of thematically complementary groups, including
several larger commercial services who will hold their
own team building meetings of forum administrators
and "sig-ops" within ONE BBSCON.

Additionally, Ziff Davis Interactive (formerly Ziff
Desktop Information) is holding their annual Summer
Shareware Seminar at ONE BBSCON. This important
annual seminar has successfully drawn together hun¬
dreds of shareware authors and entrepreneurs each
June for a three-day networking and educational event.
The Summer Shareware Seminar provides shareware
developers, vendors and others with a unique opportuni¬
ty to network and trade ideas and techniques for writ¬
ing, distributing, marketing and growing shareware
products.

The symbiotic relationship between shareware soft¬
ware developers and electronic bulletin boards reaches
back to the beginning of both shareware as a distribu¬
tion technique, and the very early developments in elec¬
tronic bulletin boards. Perusing the tens of thousands of
shareware products available and downloading files from
bulletin boards remains one of the most popular activi¬
ties on any electronic bulletin board or online service.
And thousands of software development entrepreneurs
have gotten off the ground using the low cost distribu¬
tion techniques that are part of the shareware model.

Today shareware is distributed on CD-ROM, via disk
vendors, and increasingly through retail distribution
channels. But the symbiotic relationship between share¬
ware developers and BBS operators remains a big part of
both worlds.

This year, Ziff Davis Interactive joins ONE, Inc. to
bring these two worlds together in Atlanta by holding the
Summer Shareware Seminar in conjunction with ONE
BBSCON. Educational seminars will examine the issues,
challenges, and opportunities facing today's shareware
entrepreneur. In addition, special events will provide SSS
attendees with the all-important networking and busi¬
ness opportunities available only at the SSS - the largest
gathering of shareware professionals in the US.

Ziff Davis Interactive is also pleased to announce
that PC Magazine will cosponsor the first annual PC
Magazine Shareware Awards. A special banquet will be

"Nicht umsonst gilt die Telekommunikation als grosster
Wachstumsmarkt der kommenden Jahre - ein Eindruck, der
sich auf der «ONE BBSCON» vollauf bestatigte."

Gerald Meier
Telematik Magazine
Germany

ONE BBSCON 1994

PRELIMINARY CONFERENCE AGENDA

INFORUM at the Atlanta Market Center

Headquarters Hotel: Atlanta Marriott Marquis

Wednesday, August 17,1994

8:00 am - 6:00 pm

Exhibitor Registration open

11:00 am - 7:00 pm

Attendee Registration open

7:30 pm -10:30 pm

Welcome Reception in the

INFORUM Atrium

Thursday, August 18,1994

7:00 am - 6:00 pm

Exhibitor Registration open

7:00 am - 6:00 pm

Attendee Registration open

9:00 am -11:30 am

Welcome, Opening Session

12:00 nn -1:30 pm

Lunch

2:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Seminars

2:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Exhibits open

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Coffee break

Friday, August

19, 1994

7:00 am - 6:00 pm

Exhibitor Registration open

7:00 am - 6:00 pm

Attendee Registration open

9:00 am - 6:00 pm

Seminars

9:00 am - 6:00 pm

Exhibits open

10:00 am -10:30 am

Coffee break

12:00 nn -1:30 pm

Lunch

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Coffee break

7:00 pm -11:00 pm

ZDI/PC Magazine Sharware Awards
Banquet (optional dinner event)

8:00 pm -1:00 am

Vendor Hospitality Suite Promenade
(10th floor of Marquis Hotel)

Saturday, August 20,1994

7:00 am - 6:00 pm

Exhibitor Registration open

7:00 am - 6:00 pm

Attendee Registration open

9:00 am - 6:00 pm

Seminars

9:00 am - 6:00 pm

Exhibits open

10:00 am -10:30 am

Coffee break

12:00 nn -1:30 pm

Lunch

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Coffee break

7:00 pm -11:00 pm

Dvorak Awards Banquet
(optional dinner event)

Sunday, August 21,1994

8:00 am -12:00 noon

Exhibitor Registration open

8:00 am -12:00 noon

Attendee Registration open

9:00 am -12:00 noon

Seminars (Conference adjourned)

10:00 am -10:30 am

Coffee break

ONE BBSCON - Atlanta '94

KEYNOTE SPEAKER,
EXECUTIVE ADVISORY BOARD,
and OPENING SESSION

In order to ensure ONE BBSCON represents the widest
possible range of online activity and dpes so in a manner
useful and valuable for attendees, we use an executive
advisory board structure to provide input and suggestions
on the educational and presentation aspects of ONE
BBSCON. This year’s Executive Advisory Board includes:

Dennis C. Hayes

Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.

PO Box 105203
Atlanta, GA 30348

Michael Greenbaum

Prodigy Services Company
445 Hamilton Avenue
White Plains, NY 10601
E-mail: ftxn53a@prodigy.com

John C. Dvorak

PC Magazine
751 Gateway Ave.

Albany, CA 94706

E-mail: 72241.47@compuserve.com

Jim Harrer

Mustang Software, Inc.

PO Box 2264

Bakersfield, CA 93303

E-mail: jim.harrer@mustang.com

Jim C. Warren

Microtimes
345 Swett Road
Woodside, CA 94062
E-mail: jwarren@autodesk.com

Stan Hirschman

Odyssey BBS

7244 Cornelia Drive

Edina, MN 55345

E-mail: mnwk58a@prodigy.com

Dave Hughes Sr.

Old Colorado City Communications
6 N 24th Street
Colorado Springs, CO 80904
E-mail: dave@oldcolo.com

Scott Brinker

Galacticomm, Inc.

4101 SW 47th Ave., Suite 101
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314
E-mail: brinker@gcomm.com

Lance Rose

LOL Productions

87 Midland Avenue

Montclaire, NJ 07042

E-mail: 72230.2044@compuserve.com

held on Friday evening, August 19th at ONE BBSCON.
These awards will provide for the first time national cov¬
erage and prominence for the shareware industry. PC
Magazine's sponsorship of the awards recognizes the
depth, breadth and quality of shareware today, as well as
the professionalism of the shareware industry.

The second major affiliation for this year’s event
revolves around large online network services.
Additionally, we are working with a number of other
online services such as Prodigy Services Corp. and oth¬
ers to host special meetings for their BBS moderators.
ONE BBSCON ‘94 promises to be the year that ALL
sysops from a wide variety of services come together in
the same place at the same time.

REGISTRATION AND WELCOME

R egistration and a welcoming reception for ONE
BBSCON ‘94 starts Wednesday, August 17th. The
convention officially opens with a general session at 9:00
AM, Thursday, August 18th. This session will include
addresses by each of the EAB members, and a keynote
address by Dennis C. Hayes, President of Hayes
Microcomputing Products, Inc.

ONE BBSCON SEMINARS

T he Online Networking Exposition and BBS
Convention has two primary features of interest to
attendees. A 100,000 square foot vendor exhibit trade
show area allows software, hardware, and networking
vendors to show off the very latest in PC communica¬
tions technology. But ONE BBSCON is primarily an
educational event. Last year’s show featured some 144
notable speakers participating in 137 educational semi¬
nars. At any one time, as many as eleven sessions were
going on simultaneously - an educational track of ses¬
sions that would ordinarily comprise any normal three
day convention occurs EVERY HOUR at ONE BBSCON.

This year’s event promises an even greater cornu¬
copia of seminars and educational sessions, with more
hands-on workshops and more panel discussions than
ever before. The Atlanta Market Center’s INFORUM
facility affords us some 17 assembly rooms, equipped
with the most modern audio/visual equipment available.

"ONE BBSCON gives us the opportunity to get our software
engineers out of the office and in front of our customers. Our
Wildcat! Sysops love to be able to talk one-on-one with these
guys and bend their ear on the features they need the most.
Our Engineers come back charged up ready to work wonders!
We would not miss ONE BBSCON, it is the year's hottest
event!"

Jim Harrer
President/CEO
Mustang Software, Inc.

ONE BBSCON - Atlanta '94

Adam Strack .

Alan Bryant .

Alan Clark.

Alan Heflich.

Alex Hopmann.

Andrew Milner.

Andy Keeves .

Angelo Stephano

Angus Dun .

Anne Branscomb..
Anthony T. Easton
Ben Cunningham..

Ben Templin.

Bernard Aboba.

Bill Gram-Reefer...

Bill Schneck.

Bob Baskerville ....

Bob Davis.

Brad Clements .

Brenda Donovan...
Brendon Woirhaye

Brian Stephens.

Britt Bassett.

Bruce Bodger.

Cheryl Gerber .

Chris Ambler.

Cliff Figallo .

Dan Hanson.

Dan Linton.

Dave Hughes .

Dave Kennedy .

Dave Schargel .

Dave Whittle.

David Carlson .

David Coursey .

David Hicks .

David Johnson .

David Jones .

David Terry .

Dean Kerl .

Dennis C. Hayes ...

Dennis Fowler.

Dr. Vinton Cerf .

Dr. Walt Copley.

Ed Lyell.

Erik Delfino.

Eugene Lott.

Frank LaRosa.

Fred Clark.

George Thornally....

Greg Eichman.

Greg Hewgill.

Greg Ryan.

Guy Cook.

Helen Sternheim ....

Herb Rose.

Jack DaQuano.

Jeff Reeder .

Jeff Woods.

Jim Appleby .

Jim Harrer.

Jim Lee .

Jim Maxey.

A partial sampling of last year’s ONE BBSCON speakers includes:

....U.S. Robotics, Inc.

...eSoft Inc.

...Hayes Microcomputer Products
...Arizona Macintosh Users Group
...ResNova Software, Inc.

...Wantree Development, Inc.
...Executive Network
...Rockwell International
...Franklin County Tech. School
...Harvard University
...Easton Laboratories
...Nashville Exchange
...Ziffnet/Mac

...Berkeley Mac User Group

...WORLDVIEW

...Prodigy Services Company

...MMB Development

...TEAM NET/Naval Surface Warfare

...MurkWorks

...Pacific Rim Information BBS
...Lexicon

...Galacticomm Inc.

..The Root Group Inc
..Wantree Development, Inc.
...InfoWorld
..Fubar Systems
..Electronic Frontier Foundation
..Parallax Development Corp
..Software Creations
..Old Colorado City Comm.

..Deloitte & Touche
..Aladdin Systems
..IBM

..The Albuquerque Tribune
..PC Letter
..Symantec

..Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering
..Teleflora Credit Card Services
..Clark Development Company
..Datasafe

..Hayes Microcomputer Products
..Ziff-Davis Publishing
..The Internet Society
.Metropolitan State College
..Colorado Board of Education
.ALIX II, FEDLINK BBS
.University of New Mexico
.Searchlight Software
.Clark Development Company
.Bailey Thornally, Inc
.CompuServe, Inc
.Mustang Software, Inc.

.EXEC-PC
.Colorado SuperNet
.University Of Massachusetts
.INFO*SHARE, Inc
.Northern Telcom
.Telegrafic Communications, Inc
.deltaComm Development
.The Business BBS
.Mustang Software, Inc.

.BCS Communications
.Event Horizons

Jim Pierce.

Jim Warren.

Joe Overholt.

John C. Dvorak.

John Coate.

John Friel III.

John McAffee.

John Rckey .

Joseph A. Rotella.

Joseph Martin .

Karl Schneider.

Kevin Behrens.

Key Royer .

Kimon Paphadjopoulos

Lance Rose.

Larry Wood.

Len Anderson.

Leonard Rosenthol.

Lloyd Brodsky .

Mark “Sparky” Herring .

Mark Graham .

Mark Hayton.

Martin P. Belcke.

Maury Markowitz.

Michael Allen.

Michael Bean.

Michael Chapman .

Michael Greenbaum.

Mike Godwin .

Mort Sternheim.

Nancy Bolt.

Norm Henke.

Norman Gillaspie.

Pat Clawson.

Phil James.

Phil Katz.

Philip L. Becker.

Randy Cooper.

Randy Harris.

Rob Kolstad .

Roy Pereira.

Roy Timberman .

Rusty Tucker.

Sam Robertson .

Scott Brinker .

Seth Hamilton .

Shari Steele.

Simon Clement .

Skip Potter .

Stephen J. Cunningham

Steve Laliberte.

Steve Neal.

Susan Bloom.

Ted Nelson.

Terry Donohoue.

Tim Pozar.

Tim Stryker.

Tony Zuccarino.

Troy Getty.

Dr. Vinton Cerf .

Ward Christensen.

Wess Kussmaul .

...SWARE Online Services.

...Microtimes

...Planet Systems, Inc.

...PC Magazine
...The WELL
...Qmodem
...McAffee Associates
...Wantree Development, Inc.
...Z/MAX Computer Solutions, Inc.
...Online Computer Resources
...US Dept of Agriculture ALF BBS
...Aquila BBS

...Dept, of Commerce NTIS
...Information Access Technologies
...LOL Enterprises
...Go Graphics Group/CompuServe
...ResNova Software, Inc.

...Aladdin Systems

...Univ of Colo Business School

...QMail Deluxe

...Pandora Systems

...ResNova Software

..Hackers World BBS, Inc

...Softarc, Inc.

..Computer Productions/Odyssey
..Arizona Macintosh Users Group
..Quarterdeck Office Systems
..Prodigy Services Company
..Electronic Frontier Foundation
..University Of Massachusetts
..CO State Library/Adult Ed.
..PC-Ohio
..PageSat
..Public News Corp.

..DataStorm Technologies, Inc.
..PKWARE, Inc
..eSoft, Inc.

..Hayes Microcomputer Products
..Harris Technology Assoc
..Berkley Software Design Inc
..Merlin Systems
..Sound Advice BBS
..Spyder Island Software
.Mustang Software, Inc.
.Galacticomm Inc.

.Hamilton TeleGraphics, Inc
.Electronic Frontier Foundation
.Datasafe

.Crystal Vision, Inc.

.Northern Telecom
.General Videotex Corp.

.Public Data Network

.The Business BBS

.Xanadu World Publishing Repos.

.I.R.S. Denver District

.Late Night Software

.Galacticomm Inc.

.Rockwell International
.Integrated Solutions, Inc.

.The Internet Society
.CBBS/Chicago
.The Village Group

"Both of the ONE BBSCON shows to date have provided valu¬
able insights into what is clearly an emerging industry. Now that
the Information Super Highway is a well established media phe¬
nomenon, I expect that those in the know will find ONE
BBSCON as valuable to participate in the new revolution as
COMDEX has been to those who participated in the PC revolu¬
tion. "

David Whittle
IBM

This year, a special bank of personal computers wired for
both direct dial modem connections and Internet
Protocol LAN connectivity will allow you to leave a ses¬
sion and immediately go try out the techniques and ser¬
vices demonstrated.

To make it easier to select those sessions most perti¬
nent to your own interests, the sessions are organized
thematically into “tracks” that assure minimal session

ONE BBSCON - Atlanta '94

conflict within tracks. You are entirely free to select ses¬
sions at your leisure from any or all tracks as you wish.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP ON THE INFORMATION
HIGHWAY - HOW TO RUN A BBS FOR PROFIT

T raditionally one of the popular tracks at ONE
BBSCON, this series of seminars focuses on the topic
of entrepreneurial activities in the online world. The
current expansion of the Internet and opening of the
Internet to commercial operations promise to make this
track even more popular as many attendees express a
strong interest in leaving the corporate job mill to start
their own entreprenurial business from home using
online technologies. Sessions cover some of the basic
business functions of a successful online enterprise
including how to attract callers, build a sense of commu¬
nity, what callers do online, how to price services and
more. But it also includes some of the common prob¬
lems of obtaining credit card merchant status to take
MC and Visa payments, direct mail promotion, business
plans, funding and more. Sessions are given by people
who have operated financially successful bulletin boards
as their sole means of income. And many of the most
popular of these feature panel discussions where opera¬
tors of such bulletin boards as EXEC-PC, Aquila BBS,
PC-Ohio, Databank, Bruce’s Bar&Grill, Invention
Factory, Executive Network, and others answer audience
questions regarding how they built their single line BBS
into a thriving home-based business grossing as much as
$1 million per year.

SURVEY OF BBS SOFTWARE PLATFORMS

T he most common question asked by those consider¬
ing putting BBS technology to work for their busi¬
ness, their school, their governmental department, or for
their own entreprenurial activity is “Which BBS soft¬
ware should I use?” Unfortunately, there is no short
answer. The range of applications that employ BBS
technology, and the range of features provided in differ¬
ent BBS software packages, makes the decision as to
“which BBS software” not only one of the most crucial
decisions you’ll make on the road to a successful imple¬
mentation, but also the most difficult. ONE BBSCON
* uniquely provides a forum for researching and compar¬
ing BBS packages and technologies head-to-head and
side-by-side, allowing you to talk directly with the
authors and developers of virtually ALL the popular
BBS software packages used today. In this track, each
BBS software developer provides an introductory session
providing an overview of features and applications for
which their package is best suited. There isn’t another
opportunity anywhere on the planet to do this type of
comparison. As a result, this track has been very popu¬
lar with corporate/government attendees tasked with
“picking the right one.”

The track further splits into detailed tracks for each
popular package, demonstrating particular techniques

on making the Internet connection, providing graphical
interfaces, and introducing the wealth of third-party
add-on modules and utilities available for each package.
For existing BBS operators, these comprise virtually
“mini-conventions” and work shops to learn the latest
techniques and master the tools to improve their BBS
operations.

THE INTERNET - CONNECTIVITY AND
FUNCTIONS

T he Internet has grown to connect over 2,217,000
computers on some 20,000 local area networks, cre¬
ating the largest global network for data in history. This
is a key part of the National Data SuperHighway so
much in the press these days. At last years’ ONE
BBSCON, Dr. Vinton Cerf, president of the Internet
Society and one of the original inventors of the TCP/IP
protocol suite, characterized the individual BBS systems
as the future “Gutenberg Press” of the Internet, and
indeed PC-based BBS packages promise to be absolutely
the most cost effective means of hosting your own
Internet site. This year, virtually every BBS software
vendor is planning product introductions that will allow
you to connect a low-cost PC-based bulletin board sys¬
tem to the Internet for ftp, telnet, and e-mail access at
dollar figures unheard of previously in the Internet com¬
munity. How to connect a BBS to the Internet is cur¬
rently the hottest question out there among existing
BBS operators, and of serious interest to those looking
for an inexpensive method of establishing a presence on
the Internet using a PC in a closet.

This track includes sessions describing the Internet
generally, and working toward more specific uses of the
UUCP dial-up protocol, SLII? PPF| 56KB IP connections,
T1 connections, telnet, ftp, Mosaic and World Wide Web,
Gopher, the domain name system, Archie, and more.
Most specifically, it includes detailed sessions on con¬
necting various BBS platforms to the Internet for these
services - how to, where to, what to.

This year will be the first time when the BBS soft¬
ware community actually has the solutions. ONE
BBSCON will feature full Internet Protocol ethernet
connectivity to every booth on the vendor floor, all ses-

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Pasocom - Tushin Magazine
Tokyo Japan

ONE BBSCON - Atlanta '94

Registration

Hotel Reservation
for the 3rd Annual

ONE BBSCON

ATLANTA

AUGUST 17-21,1994

to be held at the INFORUM/Atlanta Market Center
Headquarters Hotel: Atlanta Marriott Marquis

Complete this form and return it to:
ONE, Inc.

4255 South Buckley Road # 308
Aurora, Colorado 80013

Phone: (303)693-5253
Fax: (303)693-5518

1994 ONE BBSCON Registration Form

Mailing information: (Please print clearly!)
Full Name:_

Company:
Address: _

City: _State:

Zip: _ Country:_

Voice: _

Fax: _

N ame Name Badge Information: (Please print clearly!)

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

Title

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□DO

Company

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□a

Affiliation: Special Events:

□ independent BBS Operator □Dvorak/Hayes Awards Banquet $36.00

□Vendor □ZDI/PC Magazine Shareware Awards Banquet $30.00

□Summer Shareware Seminar - Developer

□Summer Shareware Seminar - Vendor

□Commercial Service Forum Moderator

□Speaker

□Other

At what Hotel will you be staying (for emergency contact purposes)?_

Conference Fees: Fees Include:

Admission to all ONE BBSCON and SSS sessions & exhibits

May 2 to August 1.$250 Wednesday evening Welcome Reception (cash bar)

After August 1.$325 Coffee breaks, and three (3) lunches

PAYMENT METHOD:

OMC/Visa.QCheck (Payable to ONE, Inc.) Total of Check or Charge: _

Credit Card Number: _ Expiration Date: _

Card Holder Name: _ Signature:_

CANCELLATION POLICY: Refunds, less $50 processing fee will be issued for WRITTEN requests received by July 27,1994. Absolutely no refunds after July 27,1994.
No refunds for "no-shows“ to the conference.

Return this form to : ONE, Inc., 4255 S Buckley Rd, #308, Aurora, CO 80013 or Fax to (303)693-5518

If you are a BBS operator, Please answer the following:

BBS Name:_

BBS Phone: _

BBS Software: _

Number of lines:_

Type: □Subscription/Fee QBusiness

□ Hobby □Government

□ Education □Other

□ Do Not publish BBS Information.

Office Use Only: Date Processed:_ Registration No. _

Authorization No._ Check No.__

B W

1994 ONE BBSCON Hotel Registration Form
Atlanta Marriott Marquis Hotel

265 Peachtree Center Avenue
Atlanta. Georgia 30303

ONE, Inc. has arranged for a convention rate at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis for this year's ONE BBSCON and SSS. The
rates are also applicable three days prior and three days after the conference dates. Only ONE BBSCON and SSS atten¬
dees and their guests are eligible for these rates.

To obtain the convention rate, reservations should be made with ONE, Inc. prior to July 27,1994. After this date rates are
no longer guaranteed and reservations taken by the hotel will be on a space available basis at the prevailing rates from
the hotel.

Reservations can be made by completing this form and sending it to ONE, Inc by mail or fax. Your hotel reservation will
be processed based on the date received. You will receive a confirmation from the Atlanta Marriott Marquis verifying your
reservation.

♦ ♦♦♦♦ Room Rate: $95.00 per night, Single or Double Occupancy ♦♦♦♦♦

RESERVATION INFORMATION: (Please print clearly!)

Full Name: _

Company:_

Address:_

City:_ State: _

Zip: _ Country:_

Voice:_

Fax: _

A credit card is required to guarantee room reservation.

Credit Card Number: _ Expiration Date:_

Card Holder Name: _ Signature: _

Return this form to : ONE, Inc., 4255 S Buckley Rd, #308, Aurora, CO 80013 or Fax to (303)693-5518

(We must have this information to make the reservation.)

Arrival Date: _

Departure Date: _

Room Type: □Single (1 bed, 1 - 2 people)

□ Double/Double (2 beds, 2-4 people)
Sharing with/Special Instructions: _

Office Use Only: Date Processed:

Registration No.

FIRST

CLASS

POSTAGE

REQUIRED

ONE, Inc

4255 South Buckley Road #308
Aurora, Colorado, 80013

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ONE BBSCON 1993, Vendors

EXEC-PC

Old Colorado City Communications

Amblsoft

Galacticomm, Inc.

Online Access

Association of Shareware Professionals

Giffy Enterprises

Online Communications, Inc.

BBS Press Service, Inc.

GTEK

Online Computer Resources

Boardwatch Magazine

GW Associates

Online! Computer Information Services

Boca Research, Inc.

Hacker’s World BBS, Inc.

PAGESAT INC.

Bryant Software

Hamilton TeleGrafics Inc.

PC Catalog

BSDI (Berkeley Software Design, Inc.)

Hayes Microcomputer Products

PC Information Group

Business BBS

IBM Corporation

Planet Systems, Inc.

The Chicago Computer Broker

INDEX System, The

Practical Peripherals

City Limits Software

INFO'SHARE, Inc.

ProStar Computer Corporation

CJM

InfoLink

Quarterdeck Office Systems

Clark Development Company Inc.

Information Access Tech, Inc.

SAGENET

Coconut Computing, Inc.

Integrated Solutions

Searchlight Software

D’Bridge/Mosaic Press

Inteiisys, Inc.

SF NET

DataSafe Publications, Inc.

InterMail Sales

Shareware Services

deltaComm Development

Lexicon Computers

Software @ Work

DigiBoardDigicom Systems, Inc.

MagiComm, Inc.

Supra Corporation

Digital Dynamics

Marketplace, The

TeleGrafix Communications, Inc.

Durand Communications Network

Master BBS Services

Tessier Technologies

Electronic Card Systems, Inc.

McAfee Associates

U.S. Robotics

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Mid-America Digital

Wantree, Inc.

Elite Communications

MMB Development Corporation

Zoom Telephonies

EMS

Mustang Software Inc.

ZyXEL

eSoft, Inc.

National Shareware Library

sion classrooms, and a bank of terminals for attendees to
try out this fascinating new global connectivity. It
promises to be one of the hottest topics of the show.

LEGAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN ONLINE
SERVICES

T he online community comprises a new frontier for
human activity and a new byway of commerce for
business. But like any frontier, it brings up a host of
questions of both a legal and social nature. This track
deals with issues such as copyright, trademarks, free-
dom-of-speech, pornography/obscenity, privacy, gender
issues online, and the social and legal aspects of doing
business in an online world. Led by experienced attor¬
neys such as Lance Rose, Mike Godwin of the EFF, and
others who have steered their legal careers into areas
dealing with intellectual property and new technologies,
this track is particularly helpful in steering clear of legal
difficulties encountered in operating an online service of
any type.

EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT
APPLICATIONS OF BBS TECHNOLOGY

N owhere has the application of BBS technology been
more successful than in the government sector, with
hundreds of bulletin boards springing up at the federal,
state, and local level. Additionally, the education com¬

"We participate in tradeshows like ONE BBSCON to build
awareness of our leadership position in the modem industry.
Our presence and ad in the ONE BBSCON show guide clearly
increased our visibility to attendees last year, so we'll be back
this year!"

Julie Seymour
Rockwell International

munity has struggled with deploying online technology
as an educational tool. Again and again, the low cost of
BBS applications has proven a winner in these sectors.
In this track, successful BBS operators within govern¬
ment and education share the techniques used to fund,
install, and operate successful bulletin boards to fill the
mission of their organization.

TECHNOLOGY TRACK

T he online community is founded on, and continues to
deploy the latest in communications technologies to
the advantage of individual callers. This track examines
high speed modems, Integrated Services Digital
Networks (ISDN), Direct Broadcast TV Cable TV X.25
networks, for connecting callers to online services. It
also delves into areas such as graphical interfaces, mail
utilities, and other areas of development in bulletin
boards.

GENERAL CONNECTIVITY TRACK

A big area of interest in the BBS community revolves
around the various means of connecting bulletin
boards to each other. This track examines the history,
technology, and future of various BBS networks such as
the International FidoNet, RIME, ILINK, other QWK
networks, and more.

BUSINESS APPLICATIONS OF BBS
TECHNOLOGY

T his track provides sessions on various business appli¬
cations of BBS technology such as product support
bulletin boards, online sales services, special topic infor¬
mation services, internal company communications,

ONE BBSCON - Atlanta '94

LAN extension, online databases, shopping online, and
more.

SUMMER SHAREWARE SEMINAR

T his year, ONE BBSCON is most pleased to host the
Summer Shareware Seminar, sponsored by Ziff
Davis Interactive. Each June for the past three sum¬
mers, this convention has brought together professional
software developers and vendors who use the shareware
software distribution technique to market and distribute
quality software products. Successful shareware entre¬
preneurs share the secrets of how to succeed in develop¬
ing, marketing, and promoting software starting with
little capital, into a successful software company.

The symbiotic relationship that has always existed
between shareware authors and BBS sysops makes a
joint gathering of ONE BBSCON and SSS the perfect
opportunity to bring these two very entreprenurial
groups together. Learn how to turn your software pro¬
gram into a financially successful product, by hearing
from the Shareware industry stars who’ve done it suc¬
cessfully. For more information about the SSS panels
and programs, contact Jerry Olsen, Program Advisory
Chairman at (312)939-3300 or Tom Barrett, ZDI at
(617)252-5127.

VENDOR EXHIBITS

I n addition to educational sessions, ONE BBSCON pro¬
vides a unique opportunity to “shop” the wares of var¬
ious technology vendors. As ONE BBSCON has grown,
it has become the “mark” to have new product introduc¬
tions and rollouts “ready for ONE BBSCON.” As a
result, many exciting new products make their very first
appearance at ONE BBSCON. Last year, for example,
Hayes rolled out their first 28.8 kbps VFC modems at
ONE BBSCON months before making a splash at
COMDEX with this new technology.

Additionally, in a bid to enlist the early adopter class
BBS operators traditionally represent, and harness the
information engine provided by several thousand BBS
operators who are in DAILY contact with a cummulative
mass of several MILLIONS of online callers, vendors
have traditionally sold product directly at ONE
BBSCON, and done so at extremely attractive “show dis¬
count” prices.

"We initiated more strategic alliances - and closed more actual
sales dollars - at BBSCON than at any other trade show event,
including COMDEX "

Scott J. Btinker
President/CEO
Galacticomm, Inc.

Past winners of the Dvorak Award include:

Ward Christensen - for developement of the XMODEM file
transfer protocol, the first protocol widely used with person¬
al computers.

Ward Christensen and Randy Seuss - honored for devel¬
oping the first electronic bulletin board system in February,
1978

Tom Jennings - honored as founder of the International
Fido Network

Chuck Forsberg - for development of the Zmodem file
transfer protocol.

Phil Katz - for development of the Pkzip file compres¬
sion/archive software.

Tom Smith - Datastorm Technologies, Inc. Procomm for
Windows terminal software.

John Friel III - Mustang Software, Inc. Qmodem terminal
software package.

The Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link - (The Well) was award¬
ed a technical excellence award for best online conferenc¬
ing system.

Channel 1 BBS - for best general interest BBS

The Electronic Frontier Foundation - for service to the
online community

Marshall Dudley - for development of the doorway pro¬
gram used by many bulletin boards to run third party soft¬
ware programs with their bulletin board.

Rockwell Design Team - for development of the first sin¬
gle package v.32/v.32 bis modem chipset, currently used in
hundreds of different modem designs.

Dennis C. Hayes - President, Hayes Microcomputer
Products, Inc. Lifetime Achievement Award

Dr. Vinton Cerf - Internet - Outstanding International
Connectivity

Motorola Codex - Outstanding Hardware Contribution-
V.Fast Technology

John Markoff - The New York Times - Outstanding
Reporting in Telecommunications

Microcom - Gregory Pearson and MNP1- Cellular
Modem Technology - Outstanding Software/Firmware
Contribution

Aquilla BBS - Outstanding BBS Organization Features,
and Design

J. Owen Greeson - Outstanding Ongoing Software
Contributions

DNIS - Data Port Network - Information System -

Outstanding BBS Gateway to Multiple Information Services

TeleGrafix Communications, Inc. - Outstanding
Advanced BBS Graphics Standard

Tim Stryker - Consensus Systems Inc. - Outstanding
Social/Political Contribution Online

ONE BBSCON - Atlanta '94

TECHWOOD DRIVE

BAKER STREET

ONE BBSCON

610 612 614 616

511 | 513 | 515 ] 517 | | 521 | 52^ 525

I 520 |

541 543 545 549 551 553 555 557 559

510 512 514 516

411 413 415 417 421 423 425 427

8 1540 |

538 540 542 544 548 550

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328

330

332

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338

342

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227

229

231

233

235

237

239

241

243

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ATLANTA

AUGUST 17-21,1994

453 455 457 459 463 465 467

454 456 458 460 462 464

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LUNCH

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The result looks more like “shopping frenzy” than a
traditional vendor display floor with many attendees
noting that they pay the expenses for their entire trip
with the savings on needed modem, hardware, and soft¬
ware purchases made on the show floor.

This year, the Atlanta Market Center INFORUM
provides us with over 100,000 square feet of vendor floor
space with a booth capacity of some 250 10X10 display
units. And given the success at the previous two ONE
BBSCON conventions, we expect to fill them early with
some of the most innovative product developers, and
exciting new communications products available on the
market. Additionally, the vendor floor will open earlier
this year, on Thursday afternoon, providing a full 2 and
1/2 days of vendor floor displays.

At ONE BBSCON 1993, vendors occupied some 135
booths and sold over a million dollars worth of product
in two days.

To find out how your company can become an active
player at this year’s ONE BBSCON, call (303)693-5253.

HOSPITALITY SUITE PROMENADE

V endor hospitality suites are traditionally a big part of
ONE BBSCON evening activities and a key opportu¬
nity for sysops to meet with vendors in an informal set¬
ting. Vendors sponsor hospitality suites throughout the
event.

But continuing a tradition from the original ONE
BBSCON ‘92, we will also feature a more organized
“Hospitality Promenade” on Friday evening, August
19th, 1994 on the 10th floor of the Marriott Marquis
Hotel. This will be a series of hospitality suites occupy¬
ing the entire floor surrounding an atrium where atten¬
dees can freely visit from one hospitality suite to anoth¬
er around the floor. This has been a very popular fea¬
ture at past ONE BBSCON’s and provides an excellent
opportunity to view additional product demonstrations
and visit with vendors and other attendees.

DVORAK AWARDS BANQUET

A nother of the more popular features of ONE
BBSCON is the Dvorak Awards for Excellence in PC
Communications. Sponsored by PC Magazine and
Boardwatch Magazine columnist John C. Dvorak, this
award recognizes significant contributions in the field of
personal computer communications.

This year’s awards will be co-sponsored by Hayes
Microcomputer Products, Inc. and presented at a special
awards banquet scheduled for Saturday evening, August
20th, 1994 at 7:00 PM. This awards banquet is an
optional dinner event priced at $36 per person
(advanced registration, $49 at the door). Register for
this early as seating is limited to 1350 attendees.

SHAREWARE AWARDS BANQUET

I n addition to the Summer Shareware Seminar educa¬
tional sessions designed specifically for Shareware
Software developers, Ziffs PC Magazine editorial staff is
also hosting a special Shareware Awards Banquet to
honor software representing the very best products
developed and marketed via the Shareware distribution
channel.

These awards will be presented at a special ZDI/PC
Magazine Shareware Awards Banquet scheduled for
Friday, August 19th, 1994 at 7:00 PM. This is an option¬
al dinner event priced at $30 per person. Seating is lim¬
ited.

CONVENTION REGISTRATION

T o register for the ONE BBSCON and SSS, simply fill
out the attached registration form and either mail or
fax it to ONE, Inc. You may complete this registration
form by modem by calling the ONE, Inc. BBS at
(303)693-5432. Registration will also be accepted by tele¬
phone by calling the ONE, Inc. office at (303)693-5253.

The registration fee for the ONE BBSCON and the
SSS is $325 which includes all meeting sessions and
materials, admission to the exhibit areas, lunch on the
three full days of the convention, and coffee breaks.
Early registration is strongly recommended.
Registration will be processed based on the date that the
completed registration form and full payment is
received. There is a discount of up to $150 for early reg¬
istration as follows:

On or before May 1 $175 per person

May 2 - August 1 $250 per person

After August 1 $325 per person

CANCELLATION POLICY: Refunds, less $50 pro¬
cessing fee, will be issued to WRITTEN requests
received by July 27, 1994. Absolutely no refunds after
July 27, 1994. No refunds for “no-shows” to the confer¬
ence.

“Por segunda vez, la conferencia ONE BBSCON, organizada
por la empresa ONE INC. logro reunir a miles de operadores de
sistemas que durante cuatro dias compartieron una amplia var-
iedad de actividades. El evento incluyo una completa sesion de
conferencias y una exposicion con decenas de stands. El
numero de asistentes se calculo en 2,000 y para la proxima
conferencia en 1994 esperan contar con 4,000."

Javier Matuk
PC-Semanal
Mexico City

ONE BBSCON - Atlanta '94

HOTEL RESERVATIONS

O NE, Inc. will serve as the housing bureau for the
1994 ONE BBSCON and SSS and will make reser¬
vations at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis until July 27,
1994,. the convention rate of $95, (single or double occu¬
pancy, plus 13% tax) is available to ONE BBSCON
attendees and their guests, and cannot be made until
you are registered for the conference.

On July 27, 1994, the rooms blocked for the confer¬
ence will be released back to the Marriott. At that time,
all reservations, changes, and cancellations will be taken
by the Marriott directly. Prior to that date the hotel can¬
not take room reservations for the ONE BBSCON.

Please direct all inquiries regarding room reservations
to:

Peg Coniglio
ONE, Inc.

4255 South Buckley Road, #308
Aurora, CO 80013
Voice: 303-693-5253
Fax: 303-693-5518
BBS: 303-693-5432

LOCATION INFORMATION

A tlanta, Georgia is a unique mixture of the old and
new South. Many of the famous Southern traditions
are still in evidence in much of Atlanta, now surrounded
by the new technologies of industry and communication.
Home to such diverse attractions as CNN, World of
Coca-Cola, Underground Atlanta, the Fox Theater, and
the Georgia Dome, Atlanta offers something for every¬
one.

The Atlanta Market Center consists of four contigu¬
ous buildings, including the Atlanta Merchandise Mart,
Atlanta Apparel Mart, INFORUM and the Atlanta Gift
Mart. Both the INFORUM/Atlanta Market Center and
the Atlanta Marriott Marquis are conveniently located
in Downtown Atlanta’s Peachtree Center.

TRAVEL AGENCY

T ravel arrangements can be made through ACS
WORLD TRAVEL, Denver, Colorado Call ACS
between 8:30 am and 5:00 pm Mountain Time:

Within the US.: 800-234-3453 or 303-871-9600
From Canada: Please call collect.

Fax: 303-871-9658

Please provide a credit card number, arrival and
departure dates, and frequent flyer numbers. Your ticket
will be promptly mailed to you. Each passenger ticketed
by ACS World Travel will have automatic $100,000 life
insurance.

GROUND TRANSPORTATION

To Atlanta Marriott Marquis:

From Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport:

by car:

Take 1-75/85 North to International Boulevard (Exit
96). Turn left onto International Boulevard. Go to
Peachtree Center Avenue, turn right. Proceed two
blocks, hotel entrance is on right.

by MARTA (Atlanta’s rapid rail system):

Take the MARTA from the baggage claim area with¬
in the Atlanta airport terminal to the Peachtree Center,
Market Center exit. The Atlanta Marriott Marquis is
located at 265 Peachtree Center Avenue, two blocks
from the stop. Fare is $1.25. Ride takes approximately
20 minutes.

To INFORUM:

From Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport:
by car:

Take 1-75/85 North to International Boulevard (Exit
96). Turn left onto International Boulevard, go to
Williams Street, turn right. Proceed two blocks, turn left
on Baker street, and parking entrance is located to the
left under the INFORUM.

by MARTA (Atlanta’s rapid rail system):

Take the MARTA from the baggage claim area with¬
in the Atlanta Airport terminal to the Peachtree Center,
Market Center exit. Fare is $1.25. An aerial walkway
inside the Merchandise Mart will lead to the INFORUM.
Ride takes approximately 20 minutes.

SPECIAL NEEDS TRANSPORTATION

Thornhill Medical Services
1381 Hendrix Ave
East Point, GA 30344

404-766-7719

Travel Care, Inc.

71 Southern Goolf Ct
Fayetteville, GA 30214

404-994-7200

I did four shows, including corporate shows, and the response
from the ONE BBSCON was by far the best of all.

Bob Baskerville
MMB Development

ONE BBSCON - Atlanta '94

ONE BBSCON

Atlanta Market Center

INFORUM

Exhibits

Seminars

APPAREL

MART

ATLANTA

AUGUST 17-21,1994

MARRIOT MARQUIS

• Opening Sessions

• Hospitality Suites

• Banquets

BAKER ST.

■

HYATT

REGENCY

■

1 TTC

■

HARRIS STREET I ■

HILTON

HOTEL

HARRIS STREET ill

GIFT

COMFORT

INN

MART

MERCHANDISE
MART

tttffilt

INTERNATIONAL BLVD.

RITZ CARLTON

, \

■ !

HOTEL

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PFAPHTPFF

MARTA STOP

ELLIS STREET iib4

I LrA\^ 1 11 i\LL

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■

CENTER MALL

Fast Food

■

Restaurants

LEGEND

AERIAL COVERED
WALKWAYS

HOUSTON STREET

MARTA LINE

(Metro Area Rapid Transit Authority Train)

MARTA STOP

Enclosed aerial walkways provide direct access
from the Atlanta Market Center to leading hotels,
restaurants, and shopping.

Registration

Hotel Reservations

Peg Coniglio
ONE, Inc.

4255 South Buckley Road
Suite 308

Aurora, Colorado 80013

Voice 303-693-5253
Fax 303-693-5518
BBS 303-693-5432

Registration Fees

Up to May 1, 1994 $175

May 2-Aug. 1, 1994 $250
After August 1, 1994 $325

Travel Arrangements

ACS World Travel
2255 South Broadway
Denver, Colorado 80210

Voice 800-234-3453

International 303-871-9600
Fax 303-871-9658

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